Individual Sense of Justice: A Utility Representation
Econometrica · 2002 · Volume 70 · Issue 1
Abstract
We present an axiomatic model depicting the choice behavior of a self-interest seeking moral individual over random allocation procedures. Individual preferences are decomposed into a self-interest component and a component representing the individual's moral value judgment. Each component has a distinct utility representation, and the preference relation depicting the choice behavior is representable by a real-valued function defined on the components utilities. The utility representing the self-interest component is linear and the utility representing the individual's moral value judgment is quasi-concave. The addition of a hexagon condition implies that the utility representing the individual's preference is additively separable in the components utilities.
Keywords
sense of justice, utility representation, moral-value judgment, random allocation procedures, moral preferences, fairness
Enable JavaScript for citation tools and additional paper interactions.