American Economic Journal:
Microeconomics
ISSN 1945-7669 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7685 (Online)
Cardinality and Utilitarianism through Social Interactions
American Economic Journal: Microeconomics
(pp. 208–53)
Abstract
We provide axioms that relate the preferences of each group in a society to the preferences of the subgroups contained in them. These axioms yield cardinal utility indices for each individual and a representation of group preferences as the group-dependent weighted sum of the utility indices of the members of that group. We show that these weights are group independent whenever one additional axiom and a mild linear independence assumption are satisfied.Citation
Alon, Shiri, and Ehud Lehrer. 2026. "Cardinality and Utilitarianism through Social Interactions." American Economic Journal: Microeconomics 18 (1): 208–53. DOI: 10.1257/mic.20240068Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D11 Consumer Economics: Theory
- D71 Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
- D81 Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
- D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness