The Pareto principle of optimal inequality

inequality aversion, Pareto principle, uncertainty, time consistency

Justifying Social Discounting: The Rank-Discounted Utilitarian Approach

The discounted utilitarian criterion for infinite horizon social choice has been criticized for treating generations unequally. We propose an extended rank-discounted utilitarian (ERDU) criterion instead. The criterion amounts to discounted utilitarianism on non-decreasing streams, but it treats all generations impartially: discounting becomes the mere expression of intergenerational inequality aversion. We show that more inequality averse ERDU societies have higher social discount rates when future generations are better-off. We apply the ERDU approach in two benchmark economic growth models and prove that it promotes sustainable policies that maximize discounted utilitarian welfare.intergenerational equity, social discounting, discounted utilitarianism, sustainability

Social rationality, separability, and equity under uncertainty

Harsanyi (1955) proved that, in the context of uncertainty, social ratio- nality and the Pareto principle impose severe constraints on the degree of priority for the worst-off that can be adopted in the social evaluation. Since then, the literature has hesitated between an ex ante approach that relaxes rationality (Diamond (1967)) and an ex post approach that fails the Pareto principle (Hammond (1983), Broome (1991)). The Hammond-Broome ex post approach conveniently retains the separable form of utilitarianism but does not make it explicit how to give priority to the worst-off, and how much disre- spect of individual preferences this implies. Fleurbaey (2008) studies how to incorporate a priority for the worst-off in an explicit formulation, but leaves aside the issue of ex ante equity in lotteries, retaining a restrictive form of consequentialism. We extend the analysis to a framework allowing for ex ante equity considerations to play a role in the ex post approach, and find a richer configuration of possible criteria. But the general outlook of the Harsanyian dilemma is confirmed in this more general setting.risk, inequality, social welfare, ex ante, ex post, fairness, Harsanyi theorem

The benefits of cooperation under uncertainty: the case of climate change

This article presents an analysis of the behavior of countries defining their climate policies in an uncertain context. The analysis is made using the S-CWS model, a stochastic version of an integrated assessment growth model. The model includes a stochastic definition of the climate sensitivity parameter. We show that the impact of uncertainty on policy design critically depends on the shape of the damage function. We also examine the benefits of cooperation in the context of uncertainty: we highlight the existence of an additional benefit of cooperation, namely risk reduction.cooperation, uncertainty, climate change, integrated assessment model

Inequality aversion and separability in social risk evaluation

This paper examines how to satisfy "independence of the utilities of the dead” (Blackorby et al. in Econometrica 63:1303-1320, 1995; Bommier and Zuber in Soc Choice Welf 31:415-434, 2008) in the class of "expected equally distributed equivalent” social orderings (Fleurbaey in J Polit Econ 118:649-680, 2010) and inquires into the possibility to keep some aversion to inequality in this context. It is shown that the social welfare function must either be utilitarian or take a special multiplicative form. The multiplicative form is compatible with any degree of inequality aversion, but only under some constraints on the range of individual utilitie

A complete and strongly anonymous leximin relation on infinite streams

Various extensions of the leximin order to the infinite dimensional setting have been suggested. They relax completeness and strong anonymity. Instead, by removing sensitivity to generations at infinite rank this paper defines a complete and strongly anonymous leximin relation on infinite streams. The order is axiomatized, and it is shown to be the limit of extended rank-discounted utilitarianism for any utility function, as the discount factor approaches zer

Strong anonymity and infinite streams.

The extended rank-discounted utilitarian social welfare order introduced and axiomatized by Stéphane Zuber and Geir B. Asheim satisfies strong anonymity (J. Econ. Theory (2011), doi:10.1016/j.jet.2011.08.001). We question the appropriateness of strong anonymity in the context of a countably infinite sequence of subsequent generations. A modified criterion that is incomplete and satisfies finite anonymity is presented.

1.4 nm gold nanoparticle-antibody conjugates for in situ gold immunolabelling after transduction into living human cells

Despite advances in Electron Microscopy (EM) that enable to image protein assemblies within vitreous sections of cells at nearly atomic resolution, labelling is still necessary to locate small proteins or rare complexes. Gold immunolabelling has been used for decades to localise specific proteins within cellular sections. However, current gold particle-antibody conjugates are not built with enough chemical precision to match the current resolution offered by cryo-EM methodology. Furthermore, as a close to native specimen state can only be achieved by strict preservation of a frozen hydrated state, it is required to deliver gold labelling agents into living cells prior to their vitrification. Several 1.4 nm gold nanoparticle-antibody conjugates were synthesised. Their abilities to bind to and label their corresponding epitopes within living cells after cytosolic delivery by electroporation are documented here

Identification of shared genetic variants between schizophrenia and lung cancer.

Epidemiology studies suggest associations between schizophrenia and cancer. However, the underlying genetic mechanisms are not well understood, and difficult to identify from epidemiological data. We investigated if there is a shared genetic architecture between schizophrenia and cancer, with the aim to identify specific overlapping genetic loci. First, we performed genome-wide enrichment analysis and second, we analyzed specific loci jointly associated with schizophrenia and cancer by the conjunction false discovery rate. We analyzed the largest genome-wide association studies of schizophrenia and lung, breast, prostate, ovary, and colon-rectum cancer including more than 220,000 subjects, and included genetic association with smoking behavior. Polygenic enrichment of associations with lung cancer was observed in schizophrenia, and weak enrichment for the remaining cancer sites. After excluding the major histocompatibility complex region, we identified three independent loci jointly associated with schizophrenia and lung cancer. The strongest association included nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and is an established pleiotropic locus shared between lung cancer and smoking. The two other loci were independent of genetic association with smoking. Functional analysis identified downstream pleiotropic effects on epigenetics and gene-expression in lung and brain tissue. These findings suggest that genetic factors may explain partly the observed epidemiological association of lung cancer and schizophrenia