Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with Funding from Aggregating Infinite Utility Streams with Inter-generational Equity Aggregating Infinite Utility Streams with Inter-generational Equity ^^i^ss""'' Libraries Aggregating Infinite Utility Streams with Inter-generational Equity*

It has been known that, in aggregating infinite utility streams, there does not exist any social welfare function, which satisfies the axioms of Pareto, inter-generational equity and continuity. We show that the impossibility result persists even without imposing the continuity axiom. Hence, the problem of accommodating inter-generational equity is more obstinate than previously supposed. The paper goes on to explore the scope for obtaining possibility results by weakening the Pareto axiom and placing restrictions on the domain of utilities. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Nmnbers: DOO, D70, D90. *The authors are grateful to Jorgen Weibull for helpful suggestions. ^Department of Economics, M.I.T., Cambridge, MA 02142, Email: [email protected] and Department of Economics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. ^Department of Economics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, Email: [email protected].