"In this case of unrestricted income distribution, the dimensionality of the issue space is the same as the number of individuals. Thus, as Tullock argues, political resolution of distributional issues is apt to be possible only if only a few parameters of the income distribution are under consideration, not the whole distribution. Why this restriction of the scope of choice should occur is not easy to explain on simple economic grounds. On the other hand, the restriction does conform to the long-standing view of writers on ethics, of whom Kant is perhaps most conspicuous, that decisions on distribution ought to be made as if by an impartial observer, who considers then only the mean, a measure of inequality, and perhaps one or two further parameters characterizing the income distribution, but not specifically who gets what. If voters acted like Kantian judges, they might still differ, but the chances of coming to an agreement by majority decision would be much greater than if voters consulted egoistic values only. Does this suggest that ethics may have survival value for political systems and therefore descriptive as well as prescriptive significance?"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesPeople from New York CityMathematicians from the United StatesEconomists from the United StatesNobel laureates in Economics
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"Tullock and an Existence Theorem", Public Choice, Vol. 6 (Spring, 1969)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kenneth_Arrow
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Kenneth Arrow
Kenneth Joseph Arrow (August 23, 1921 – February 21, 2017) was an American economist, who was Professor Emeritus of Economics in Stanford, and joint winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with John Hicks in 1972.
151 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Kenneth Arrow →
Related Quotes
"There is no need to enlarge upon the importance of a realistic theory explaining how individuals choose among alterna…"
"Among economic phenomena which have in some way been tied up with the existence of uncertainty, three classes may be …"
"The businessman may be compared with two other types of individuals who are essentially concerned with behavior under…"
"Traditional welfare economics shows that there are certain of these combinations that will be preferred by all the vo…"
"In a capitalist democracy there are essentially two methods by which social choices can be made: voting, typically us…"
"Ever since I encountered Hicks’s Value and Capital while I was still a graduate student, I had the aim of completing …"
"L. Walras first formulated the state of the economic system at any point of time as the solution of a system of simul…"
"Perhaps as important is the relation between the existence of solutions to a competitive equilibrium and the problems…"
"The government may be regarded as a decision-making entity. Among the decisions it makes are the formation of economi…"
"The terms of trade with the outside world should not be regarded as freely given to the firm. In a world with a large…"