Open AccessAn Approach to the Welfare Analysis of Inter-Temporal Resource Alloca¬tion by Jerome Rothenberg, (Lecture Series No. 22). Athens: Center of Planning and Economic Research, 1967. pp.75.
Author(s) -
Gunnar Fløystad
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v7i4pp.547-549
Subject(s) - comparability , normative , welfare , population , center (category theory) , resource (disambiguation) , externality , economics , linkage (software) , sociology , positive economics , demography , political science , microeconomics , law , mathematics , computer science , market economy , computer network , biochemistry , chemistry , combinatorics , gene , crystallography
Rothenberg's book contains three lectures read at the Centerof Planning and Economic Research in Athens. The author starts byarguing that the problem of welfare comparisons over considerable timeintervals is simply that the populations being compared in the twoperiods are not unchanged. The normative criteria economists usually usefor making welfare comparisons an unchanging population, i.e., eachindividual must be present in the various situa¬tions that are compared.The author, by contrast, intends to examine situations where only someindividuals are present in one of the two situations com¬pared. Histreatment of the linkage between two situations over time is based ontwo key assumptions: i) the population composition changes almostconti¬nuously, ii) the new additions to the population are familiarlylinked to the exist¬ing members. The author concludes that under certainsimplifying assumptions— e.g., that the utility function of eachindividual remains unchanged through life and that parents act on behalfof their heirs—no important problem of intergenerational comparabilityarises except where intertemporal externalities are involved.