Population Ethics

[Itzhak Gilboa]

Hi!

We've just completed a note on "Population Ethics: A Position-Based Axiomatic Approach".  The abstract is below and the paper is available at

https://itzhakgilboa.weebly.com/uploads/8/3/6/3/8363317/rusonik_gilboa_population_ethics.pdf

Comments will be much appreciated!

Best,

Alyssa and Tzachi

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A social planner considers the far future, asking which population profile should be preferred, where none of the people involved has been born or conceived yet. A population's profile is given by the number of individuals who are in each possible position. Thus, symmetry among individuals who are in the same position is presupposed by the model. The model allows populations to be of different sizes, and assumes that they can be compared by the social planner. Three simple conditions characterize the relations that can be represented in a utilitarian way, that is, by assigning a number to each position so that profiles are ranked according to the sum of utilities across individuals.