The history of the axiomatic approach to the ranking of infinite streams starts with Koopmans’ (1960) characterization of the discounted utilitarian rule. This rule, however, meets Chichilnisky’s axiom of dictatorship of the present and puts future generations offside. Recently, Lauwers...

We characterize a new quasi-ordering on the collection of opportunity (or choice) sets. This new rule combines two criteria: the individual preferences on the universal set of options and the number of maximal options in the opportunity set. This new rule is compared with the indirect utility...

We introduce and axiomatize two quasi-orderings that extend preferences on a set to its power set. First, a modified version of indirect utility takes into account the number of maximal elements in the opportunity set. This rule meets Puppe's axiom of preference for freedom. Second, an averaging...

A set of outcomes for a TU-game in characteristic function form is dominant if it is, with respect to an outsider-independent dominance relation, accessible (or admissible) and closed. This outsider-independent dominance relation is restrictive in the sense that a deviating coalition cannot...

The extended rank-discounted utilitarian social welfare order introduced and axiomatized by Stéphane Zuber and Geir B. Asheim satisfies strong anonymity (J. Econ. Theory (2011), doi:10.1016/j.jet.2011.08.001). We question the appropriateness of strong anonymity in the context of a countably...

The existence of a purely finitely additive measure cannot be proved in Zermelo-Frankel set theory if the use of the Axiom of Choice is disallowed.

Ordering infinite utility streams: maximal anonymity

Consider the following nine rules for adjudicating conflicting claims: the proportional, constrained equal awards, constrained equal losses, Talmud, Piniles’, constrained egalitarian, adjusted proportional, random arrival, and minimal overlap rules. For each pair of rules in this list, we...

The existence of a Paretian and finitely anonymous ordering in the set of infinite utility streams implies the existence of a non-Ramsey set (a nonconstructive object whose existence requires the axiom of choice). Therefore, each Paretian and finitely anonymous quasi-ordering either is...

The topological approach to social choice was developed by Graciela Chichilnisky in the beginning of the eighties. The main result in this area (known as the resolution of the topological social choice paradox) shows that a space of preferences admits of a continuous, anonymous, and unanimous...