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Pareto welfarism & utilitarianism

Practice exercises. No grades; move on whenever you like.

Pareto improvement

Policy y is a Pareto improvement over x if:

  • no one is worse off under y than under x
  • at least one person is strictly better off

Pareto efficient

No available policy is a Pareto improvement over it.

Utilitarian optimum

The policy with the highest total welfare (sum of utilities).

The society

Utility space