The Welfare Evaluation of Primary Goods: A Suggestion

Abstract: This paper presents a characterization of a welfare index for the evaluation of primary goods (to be understood as those goods that all agents should enjoy equally). The welfare associated with a given distribution of n primary goods amongm agents is measured as the sum of n real-valued functions, one for each good, which are increasing in the aggregate consumption and decreasing in its dispersion (measured by Theil's first inequality index).;