TY  - JOUR
AU  - Weitzman,Martin L.
TI  - A Contribution to the Theory of Welfare Comparisons
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6988
PY  - 1999
Y2  - February 1999
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6988
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6988.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Martin Weitzman
Department of Economics
Harvard University
Littauer 313
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-5133
Fax: 617/495-8570
E-Mail: mweitzman@harvard.edu
AB  - Using only information based on current directly-observable market behavior, the paper shows how to make rigorous dynamic welfare comparisons among economies or economic situations having arbitrarily-different endowments and technologies, but sharing a common dynamic preference ordering.  The correct answers to seemingly complicated questions, which intrinsically involve comparing wealth-like measures of dynamic well-being, can be translated isomorphically into a simple-minded story told in the familiar language of old-fashioned static consumer-welfare theory.
ER  -