Impartiality and interpersonal comparisons of variations in well-being

The moral imperative requiring equal treatment of equal claims, or impartiality, is defined in the frameworks of Harsanyi's aggregation and impartial observer theorems as an axiomatic restriction of the underlying moral value judgments. The implications of impartiality for the functional form of the corresponding social welfare functions are derived and are shown to entail interpersonal comparison of variations in well-being. The argument is illustrated with examples.This paper was written while I visited CORE at the Universite Catholique de Louvain and Universite Sorbonne-Pantheon (Paris I). I am grateful to both institutions for their hospitality. I am also grateful to Omer Alper, Philippe Mongin, Zvi Safra, and Uzi Segal for their useful comments.     

Risky social choice with incomplete or noisy interpersonal comparisons of well-being

In this study, we develop a model of social choice over lotteries, where people’s psychological characteristics are mutable, their preferences may be incomplete, and incomplete or noisy interpersonal comparisons of well-being are possible. Formally, we suppose individual preferences are described by a von Neumann-Morgenstern (vNM) preference order on a space of lotteries over psychophysical states; the social planner must construct a vNM preference order on lotteries over social states. First, we consider a model where the individual vNM preference order is incomplete (so not all interpersonal comparisons are possible). Then, we consider a model where the individual vNM preference order is complete, but unknown to the planner, and thus modelled by a random variable. In both cases, we obtain characterizations of a utilitarian social welfare function.     

On interpersonal utility comparisons

This paper argues that interpersonal comparisons of utility levels are difficult in principle and that interpersonal comparisons of utility differences can also hardly be defined based solely on individual choice behavior.The author is indebted to Professor M. Wooders for detailed comments on an earlier draft and to Professor R. Selten, M. Shubik, Y. Ito, K. Kamiyama and H. Atsumi for helpful discussions. He also thanks Professors L. Gevers, Y. K. Ng and a referee of this journal for valuable comments on earlier drafts.     

Objective interpersonal comparisons of utility

 This paper examines the problem of distilling conflicting interpersonal comparisons into a single set of interpersonal comparisons. The mapping that achieves this has a richer co-domain than all social choice problems (and a richer domain than most social choice problems). The set of mappings satisfying a mild set of restrictions is very small. If interpersonal comparisons embody ratio-scale comparability then the mapping is Cobb–Douglas in form; if interpersonal comparisons embody no more than level and difference comparability then the mapping must be dictatorial and it is impossible to combine different interpersonal comparisons. Received: 16 February 1995/Accepted: 13 October 1995     

Independence of irrelevant interpersonal comparisons

Arrow's independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) condition makes social choice depend only on personal rather than interpersonal comparisons of relevant social states, and so leads to dictatorship. Instead, a new independence of irrelevant interpersonal comparisons (IIIC) condition allows anonymous Paretian social welfare functionals such as maximin and Sen's leximin, even with an unrestricted preference domain. But when probability mixtures of social states are considered, even IIIC may not allow escape from Arrow's impossibility theorem for individuals' (ex-ante) expected utilities. Modifying IIIC to permit dependence on interpersonal comparisons of relevant probability mixtures allows Vickrey-Harsanyi utilitarianism. Thus, if we wish to go beyong the comparisons that are possible using only the [pareto] principle of the new welfare economics, the issue is not whether we can do so without making interpersonal comparisons of satisfactions. It is rather, what sorts of interpersonal comparisons are we willing to make. Unless the comparisons allowed by Arrow's Condition 3 [independence of irrelevant alternatives] could be shown to have some ethical priority, there seems to be no reason for confining consideration to this group.Hildreth (1953, p 91)     

On intra- and interpersonal utility comparisons

In this paper, it is suggested to formulate assumptions on the comparability of individual utilities in terms of meaningful statements rather than using the usual way of defining such assumptions by means of certain sets of admissible transformations. Various assumptions involving intra- and interpersonal comparisons of utility levels and utility differences are introduced in terms of meaningful statements and compared to their traditional counterparts. It is shown that these two approaches are, in general, not equivalent. In a social choice framework, it is demonstrated that the difference between these approaches can be quite substantial: replacing the usual cardinal unit comparability assumption by a condition involving comparisons of utility differences which is similar in spirit turns a well-known characterization of the utilitarian social welfare functional into an impossibility theorem.I am indebted to Charles Blackorby, David Donaldson, Michel Le Breton, and John Weymark for very helpful discussions and comments on an earlier version of the paper. The suggestions of two anonymous referees enabled me to improve the paper considerably.     

Parental health and children's economic well-being

The life course perspective emphasizes that past economic experiences and stage in the life course influence a family's ability to cope with negative life events such as poor health. However, traditional analytic approaches are not well-suited to examine how the impact of negative life events differs based on a family's past economic experiences, nor do they typically account for the potentially spurious association between negative life events and family economic well-being. We use finite mixture modeling to examine how changes in parental health affect children's exposure to poverty. We find that for some children the association between family head's health and children's exposure to poverty is spurious, while for other children family head's poor health is associated with increased risk of economic deprivation. The extent to which a family head's poor health alters children's economic well-being depends on a child's family's underlying economic trajectory and past history of exposure to disadvantage.     

Early childbearing and later economic well-being

In a study of 1268 women, aged 20-24 in 1968, who were surveyed in 1968 and reinterviewed in 1973 and 1975 as part of the National Longitudinal Surveys of the Labor Market Experience of Young Women, the economic situation of the women at age 27 was compared for those who had given birth to a child during their teen years with those who did not bear a child until after age 18. The effects on economic status of early childbearing were primarily negative and operated indirectly through intervening variables such as, decreased educational levels and higher fertility rates. For each year a birth was postponed, annual earnings at age 27 were increased by $197. Surprisingly, women who had a child at age 15 or 16 experienced fewer negative economic effects at age 27 than those who had a child at age 17 or 18; perhaps the younger girls continued to live with their parental family and remained in school while the slightly older girls left the parental family and dropped out of school. The negative economic effects at age 27 for black women who bore a child at an early age were less pronounced than for white women. Policy makers should be aware of these long-term negative economic effects of early childbirth and efforts should be made 1) to increase child care programs which enable young mothers to continue their schooling; 2) to provide family planning services to young mothers who are at greater risk of subsequently having large families; 3) to encourage young mothers to remain living with their parental family; and 4) to provide additional training and job counseling for young mothers. Tables depict 1) mean and standard deviations for 50 sociodemographic variables for women who were less than 19 at first birth and for women who were 19 or older at first birth; 2) estimated structural equations for the total sample, for whites only, for blacks only, for those 19 years or older at first birth, and for those less than 19 years of age at first birth; and 3) effect on economic well-being at age 27 of delaying birth by one year by age at first birth and by race.     

Household wealth and the measurement of economic well-being in the United States

We analyze the level and distribution of economic well-being in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s based on the standard measure of money income and a measure in which income from wealth is calculated as the sum of lifetime annuity from nonhome wealth and imputed rental-equivalent for owner-occupied homes. Over the 1982–2000 period, median well-being increases faster when these adjustments are made than when standard money income is used. This adjustment also widens the income gap between African-Americans and whites but increases the relative well-being of the elderly. Adding imputed rent and annuities from household wealth to household income considerably increases measured inequality and the share of income from wealth in inequality. However, both measures show about the same rise in inequality over the period. We also find an increasing share of wage and salary income in our expanded definition of income among the richest 1% over the period but do not find that the “working rich” have largely replaced rentiers at the top of the economic ladder.      

Deaf people and economic well-being: findings from the Life Opportunities Survey

The present study used propensity score analysis to compare the economic well-being of people with and without hearing impairment in the UK. Using nationally representative 2009/10 Life Opportunities Survey, our study found that economic well-being was significantly worse for people with hearing impairment than people without hearing impairment. Hearing impaired people (1) had lower household income, (2) experienced greater difficulties making ends meets, (3) were unable to pay for unexpected but necessary expenses of ?500, and (4) were less likely to work in paid jobs even after accounting for other demographic characteristics. The findings underscore the barriers and discrimination against people with hearing impairment in the UK. Policy measures to increase access and engagement of hearing impaired people should be considered, including increasing investment in better employment opportunities, sign interpretation, and disability benefits.     

Prevalence and economic well-being of families raising multiple children with disabilities

This study estimates the prevalence of households raising more than one child with disabilities, and examines these families' economic well-being. Using pooled data from the 2004 and 2008 Survey of Income and Program Participation we compare households with multiple children with disabilities (n = 932) to households with one disable child (n = 3457) and to households with at least one child but none with disabilities (n = 21,378) on measures of material hardship. Three percent of U.S. households with children had more than one disabled child. Compared to other households with children, those with multiple children with disabilities were significantly more likely to have income below the federal poverty level and to report material hardships. The number of children with disabilities is an important contextual variable for studying the economic circumstances under which, care is provided to children with disabilities. Its implications for practice and policy are discussed.     

Unemployment induced adaptations: Relationships among economic responses and individual and marital well-being

This study explores the impact of consumption changes, implemented during unemployment, on perceived economic, marital, and emotional functioning of 34 husbands and 34 wives. Questionnaires completed at the onset of unemployment assessed initial level of perceived functioning. Questionnaires completed one year later assessed the level of functioning in three areas and the extent to which seven categories of consumption changes were implemented. Multivariate analyses determined that credit use and income raising are significant predictors of economic satisfaction. Changes in income raising, credit use, planning, and store choice are significant predictors of marital adjustment. None of the changes predict depression.This research was supported by Arizona Research Station Project #174509-R-07-64 and is part of the Agriculture Experiment Station Project W-167 titled, Coping With Stress: Adaptation of Nonmetropolitan Families to Socioeconomic Changes.Mari S. Wilhelm is assistant professor and Carl A. Ridley is professor in the School of Family and Consumer Resources at the University of Arizona Tucson Arizona 85721 Dr. Wilhelm is presently conducting research in the areas of family financial stress and family financial decision-making. Dr. Wilhelm received her Ph.D. from Michigan State. Dr. Ridley, who received his Ph.D. from Florida State, is conducting research on conflict management behavior in marriage.     

Work time. Leisure time. On women's temporal and economic well-being in Europe

In the study of work time, a wealth of influential ideas has emerged about the potentially damaging impact of too many hours in the labour market on the rest of peoples' lives, as well as about the negative economic ramifications of short hours working. The paper focuses on the temporal and economic well-being of female employees in Europe, stimulated by the importance of work time in debates over time poverty and work life integration. It asks whether women in shorter hours jobs are happiest with their time for paid work and leisure, but also what might the lower wages from reduced hours working mean for women, particularly those in low-level occupations. The paper shows first that although working fewer hours contributes to women's satisfaction with their time in many countries, it is long full-time hours that have the strongest (negative) relationship with women's temporal well-being across Europe. Second, the paper demonstrates the damaging impact of working in low-level occupations – both part-time and full-time – on the economic well-being of women's households. It stresses the importance of a combined work time and occupational class approach in the ongoing analysis of women's working lives.     

Exploring long-term economic well-being and child outcomes with the Supplemental Poverty Measure: evidence from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics

This study is the first to use the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) to reexamine the relationships between long-term economic well-being and child outcomes. We decompose the differences between the Official Poverty Measure (OPM) and the SPM and examine such relationships with 15 cognitive, physical, and social–emotional outcomes for 754 ten- to nineteen-year-olds as reported in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) 2007 Child Development Supplement. Using PSID data from 1998 to 2006, we measure long-term economic well-being using the average natural logarithm of the ratio of family resources to the poverty threshold with a series of models, beginning with the OPM and converting it step-by-step into the SPM. We find that some steps in constructing the SPM, especially including in-kind benefits and using the SPM thresholds, weaken the relationships between our economic well-being measure and the cognitive outcomes, although including in-kind benefits strengthens the relationships with many of the physical and social–emotional outcomes. Better understanding the relationships between different poverty measures and outcomes of interest can open new avenues for research on mitigating the adverse effects of poverty and could perhaps allow us to better target interventions to individuals who are at greatest risk for adverse outcomes.     

Constructing quantitative implementation scales from categorical services data. Examples from a multisite evaluation

Like measures of outcome, measures of implementation are most useful and analytically powerful when measured at client-level and are quantitative. However, high-quality, individual-level, quantitative service utilization data can be expensive, intrusive, or otherwise impractical to obtain. Cruder data--for example, presence versus absence of a given service--are often more feasible to collect, as well as more likely to be available. Consequently, evaluators can benefit by finding ways to better exploit such data at the analysis phase to compensate for shortcomings at the collection phase. This article documents one such instance in which this was done. Specifically, it describes how quantitative, client-level implementation scales were derived from qualitative (categorical) data and used to support a cross-site synthesis of implementation and outcome analyses in a multisite evaluation. It also suggests additional scenarios in which quantitative implementation scales might be derived form qualitative services data.     

Utilitarianism and interpersonal comparison

Beliefs in the impossibility of interpersonal comparison of welfare and the unacceptability of utilitarianism are based on a non-materialist solution to the theory of mind, i.e. on the existence of a soul. The compellingness of the theory of evolution and some discoveries in brain sciences render (philosophical) materialism very persuasive. The acceptance of materialism implies the negation of free will, non-significance of the self (no substantial reason to care much more about the welfare of one's own future self than the welfare of others), possibility of interpersonal comparison of welfare, compellingness of utilitarianism, and the possibility of conscious machines. Searle's argument on the impossibility of rigorous social sciences is however rejected.I am grateful to Dennis Mueller and Aubrey Townsend for commenting on the first draft.     

Social insurance and children: The relationship between Social Security,economic well-being,and family context among child recipients

The relationship between social insurance, which provides families protection against certain risks, and child economic security is understudied. Using the 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) matched to Social Security Administration benefit records, this article investigates the economic welfare effects of the child component of the US Social Security program. We examine how the poverty rate of child beneficiaries would change, absent Social Security income, and how heavily the family incomes of these children rely on it, by family characteristics. Our findings reveal that Social Security plays an important role in mitigating economic insecurity among children deprived of a wage-earning parent through disability, death, or retirement. Family structure, earnings, and employment status are identified as key factors moderating the effect of Social Security on child recipients’ financial circumstance.