Lives and well-being

This article attempts to use the analytical framework of social choice theory for exploring the ethical foundations of population policies. It is argued that non-existence is not a state and therefore that different numbers problems are conceptionally different from same numbers problems that concern much theoretical welfare economics. By means of examples it is argued that we should not expect to find an overall ethical ordering of social states when the size of future generations is subject to choice.This is a totally revised version of a paper (Dasgupta 1983) prepared for Professor Menahem Yaari's workshop on Social Choice Theory and Welfare Economics at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, in the Spring of 1983. It was also presented at the meeting of the Working Group of the US National Academy of Science Committee on Population Growth and Economic Development held during August 2–4, 1984 at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. One strand of this earlier version, with extensions, was subsequently published in the volume of the Working Group: D. Gale Johnson and R. D. Lee (eds) (1987). I have benefitted greatly from discussions over the past several years with Kenneth Arrow, Robert Aumann, Simon Blackburn, Charles Blackorby, John Broome, David Donaldson, George Garnett, Peter Hammond, John Harsanyi, David Kelsey Marc Nerlove, Derek Parfit, John Rawls, Tim Scanlon, Paul Seabright, Amartya Sen, Robert Sugden, and Menahem Yaari. While preparing this eassay I received an extended letter from Jan Graaff in which he reflected on some of the issues discussed in the earlier paper.This present version bears the impact of his comments.