On the leximin and utilitarian overtaking criteria with extended anonymity

Abstract

This paper studies the extensions of the infinte-horizon variants of the leximin principle and utilitarianism on the set of infinite utility streams. We especially examine those extensions which satisfy the axiom of Preference-continuity (or Consistency) and the extended anonymity axiom called Q-Anonymity. We formulate new extended leximin and utilitarian social welfare relations (SWRs), called Q-W-leximin SWR and Q-overtaking criterion respectively, and show that Weak Preference-continuity (or Weak Consistency) and Q-Anonymity together with Strong Pareto and Hammond Equity (resp. Partial Unit Comparability) characterize all SWRs that include the Q-W-leximin SWR (resp. the Q-overtaking criterion) as a subrelation. We also show that there exists no SWR satisfying Strong Pareto, Strong Preference-continuity (or Strong Consistency) and Q-Anonymity.Q-Anonymity, Preference-continuity, Consistency, Leximin, Utilitarianism, Overtaking criterion