BY: JOHN E. ROEMER
Yale University
University of California, Davis
Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=285762
Paper ID: Cowles Foundation Discussion Paper No. 1328
Date: September 2001
Contact: JOHN E. ROEMER
Email: Mailto:john.roemer at yale.edu
Postal: Yale University
Department of Political Science
Box 208301
New Haven, CT 06520-8301 USA
Phone: 203-432-5249
Fax: 203-432-6196
ABSTRACT:
J. Rawls and R. Dworkin have each used veils of ignorance to
justify equality (Rawls) or to compute what equality entails
(Dworkin). J. Harsanyi has also derived a distributive ethic
from a veil of ignorance argument, which, although not
egalitarian, is believed by Harsanyi to be not excessively
inegalitarian.
Harsanyi's analysis does not determine a unique social choice
function, but rather a family of such functions. Here, by
appending more information to Harsanyi's environment, and an
Axiom of Neutrality, I uniquely determine a social welfare
function by extending Harsanyi's argument. I show that this
function is strongly inegalitarian, in that it recommends
resource transfers from disabled to able individuals.
Some concluding remarks are offered against using the veil of
ignorance in studying the distributive ethics.
Keywords: Harsanyi, Dworkin, Rawls