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ON INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AND THE SOCIAL WELFARE FUNCTION
Author(s) -
Quibria M. G.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
bulletin of economic research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.227
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-8586
pISSN - 0307-3378
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8586.1990.tb00297.x
Subject(s) - contradiction , welfare , social welfare function , function (biology) , social welfare , economics , population , public economics , positive economics , sociology , political science , law , demography , market economy , philosophy , epistemology , evolutionary biology , biology
In defining optimum population, economists have used two distinct concepts of the social welfare function: the Millian and the Benthamite. Although analytically the issue of the welfare impact of international migration is closely related to the concept of optimum population, the migration analysis has been based almost exclusively on the Benthamite welfare function. As its point of departure, the present note explores the implications of the alternative Millian welfare function for migration analysis. An interesting aspect of the results derived from the present exercise is that they are in sharp contradiction with the results based on the Benthamite social welfare function. This highlights the sensitivity of the results to the welfare criteria used and the need for greater caution in policy formulation.