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Louis Kaplow & Steven Shavell, Any Non-Individualistic Social Welfare Function Violates the Pareto Principle (Nat'l Bureau Econ. Res., Working Paper No. w7051, Mar. 1999).


Abstract: The public at large, many policymakers, and some economists hold views of social welfare that attach some importance to factors other than individuals' utilities. This note shows that any such non-individualistic notion of social welfare conflicts with the Pareto principle.