Escaping the Repugnant Conclusion: Rank-Discounted Utilitarianism with Variable Population
23 Pages Posted: 17 Oct 2012
Date Written: September 21, 2012
Abstract
Evaluation of climate policies and other issues requires a variable population setting where population is endogenously determined. We propose and axiomatize the rank-discounted critical-level utilitarian social welfare order. It is shown to fill out the space between critical-level utilitarianism and (a version of) critical-level leximin. Moreover, it satisfies many conditions and principles used to evaluate variable population criteria. In particular, it avoids the repugnant conclusion even when the critical level is zero.
Keywords: social evaluation, population ethics, critical-level utilitarianism, social discounting
JEL Classification: D630, D710, H430, Q560
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation