The incompatibility of individualism and ordinalism

Murray C Kemp; Yew Kwang Ng

doi:10.1016/0165-4896(82)90004-X

The incompatibility of individualism and ordinalism

Murray C Kemp, Yew Kwang Ng

Department of Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A formal proof is offered of the fact that Individualism and Ordinalism imply the controversial condition A3 used by Kemp and Ng (1976) to show the non-existence of an individualistic social welfare function based only on ordinal preferences but objected to by Samuelson (1977) as unreasonable. Mayston's argument against our definition of ordinality is refuted; his notion of 'true ordinality' involves elements of cardinality and/or goes against individualism.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	33-37
Number of pages	5
Journal	Mathematical Social Sciences
Volume	3
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-4896(82)90004-X
Publication status	Published - Jul 1982

Keywords

individualism
ordinalism
Social welfare function

Access to Document

10.1016/0165-4896(82)90004-X

Cite this

@article{439f918fa24a4abb890938cc8ddf8d5f,

title = "The incompatibility of individualism and ordinalism",

abstract = "A formal proof is offered of the fact that Individualism and Ordinalism imply the controversial condition A3 used by Kemp and Ng (1976) to show the non-existence of an individualistic social welfare function based only on ordinal preferences but objected to by Samuelson (1977) as unreasonable. Mayston's argument against our definition of ordinality is refuted; his notion of 'true ordinality' involves elements of cardinality and/or goes against individualism.",

keywords = "individualism, ordinalism, Social welfare function",

author = "Kemp, {Murray C} and Ng, {Yew Kwang}",

year = "1982",

month = jul,

doi = "10.1016/0165-4896(82)90004-X",

language = "English",

volume = "3",

pages = "33--37",

journal = "Mathematical Social Sciences",

issn = "0165-4896",

publisher = "Elsevier",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - The incompatibility of individualism and ordinalism

AU - Kemp, Murray C

AU - Ng, Yew Kwang

PY - 1982/7

Y1 - 1982/7

N2 - A formal proof is offered of the fact that Individualism and Ordinalism imply the controversial condition A3 used by Kemp and Ng (1976) to show the non-existence of an individualistic social welfare function based only on ordinal preferences but objected to by Samuelson (1977) as unreasonable. Mayston's argument against our definition of ordinality is refuted; his notion of 'true ordinality' involves elements of cardinality and/or goes against individualism.

AB - A formal proof is offered of the fact that Individualism and Ordinalism imply the controversial condition A3 used by Kemp and Ng (1976) to show the non-existence of an individualistic social welfare function based only on ordinal preferences but objected to by Samuelson (1977) as unreasonable. Mayston's argument against our definition of ordinality is refuted; his notion of 'true ordinality' involves elements of cardinality and/or goes against individualism.

KW - individualism

KW - ordinalism

KW - Social welfare function

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=29144502715&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/0165-4896(82)90004-X

DO - 10.1016/0165-4896(82)90004-X

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:29144502715

SN - 0165-4896

VL - 3

SP - 33

EP - 37

JO - Mathematical Social Sciences

JF - Mathematical Social Sciences

IS - 1

ER -

The incompatibility of individualism and ordinalism

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Cite this