Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-r5zm4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-16T13:01:18.086Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Local justice and interpersonal comparisons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Jon Elster
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Jon Elster
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
Get access

Summary

Introduction

The problem of interpersonal comparisons of utility or welfare can be studied from several perspectives. First, there is a conceptual issue: Are such comparisons at all meaningful? Second, there is a question of operationalization. Assuming that the notion of comparing the utility or welfare of different people is meaningful, can it be reliably and validly implemented in practice? Here, “in practice” can mean anything from procedures that would work only under ideal conditions to methods that could be routinely used under a wide variety of circumstances. Third, we can start from the fact that people carry out these comparisons all the time, and ask how they do it. This question, or rather a subvariety of it, is the main topic of this chapter.

This issue – how people actually make interpersonal comparisons – can be studied in many ways. Coming from experimental psychology, one may search for heuristics, biases, and inconsistencies. Experimental techniques also allow us to test perceptions of relative need, and to bring out the features of an allocative situation and of potential recipients that shape this perception. The focus of this chapter is on the allocative behavior of institutions. In allocating the scarce goods at their disposal – organs for transplantation, exemption from military service, or admission to higher education – institutions often (but not invariably) make comparisons between potential recipients. These comparisons are sometimes made in terms of utility or welfare, more frequently in terms of proxies for well-being.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×