UCL School of Management is delighted to welcome Professor Chris Ryan, UBC, to host a research seminar discussing; “Near” Weighted Utilitarian Characterizations of Pareto Optima.

Abstract:
We characterize Pareto optimality via “near” weighted utilitarian welfare maximization. One characterization sequentially maximizes utilitarian welfare functions using a finite sequence of nonnegative and eventually positive welfare weights. The other maximizes a utilitarian welfare function with a certain class of positive hyperreal weights. The social welfare ordering represented by these “near” weighted utilitarian welfare criteria is characterized by the standard axioms for weighted utilitarianism under a suitable weakening of the continuity axiom.