NE&EP webinar (TOMORROW Monday 28th): Benoit Decerf presents "An axiomatic theory of simple welfare indices"
may...@gmail.com
Dear all,
Our next Normative Economics and Economic Policy webinar will take place on Monday April 28th, at 5pm Paris time (11am EDT).
Benoit Decerf (World Bank) will present:
" An axiomatic theory of simple welfare indices”
with A. Kraay, B. Ozler, D. Jolliffe, C. Lakner, O. Sterck and N. Yonzan (Abstract below)
Link to the webinar: https://uio.zoom.us/j/63716638043
We look forward to seeing you all on Monday!
All the best,
Maya Eden and Paolo Piacquadio
Abstract: Welfare economics has a long axiomatic tradition aiming at deriving welfare indices that satisfy a list of desirable ethical properties. In practice, whether or not a welfare index is adopted and used crucially depends on how simple the index is to understand, communicate and work with. However, simplicity is often an afterthought rather than a constraint imposed when deriving the index. Perhaps, the reason is that simplicity resists formalization. To make progress on this, we propose an axiomatic theory to study which welfare indices satisfy minimal ethical properties together with a set of simplicity properties. The theory reveals the trade-offs that exist between simplicity and ethical validity, as well as trade-offs between different aspects of simplicity. Using this theory, we characterize a new welfare index, which we call the welfare gap.