Walter Bossert – författare

This book presents an exploration of the idea of the common or social good, extended so that alternatives with different populations can be ranked. The approach is, in the main, welfarist, basing rankings on the well-being, broadly conceived, of those who are alive (or ever lived). The axiomatic method is employed, and topics investigated include: the measurement of individual well-being, social attitudes toward inequality of well-being, the main classes of population principles, principles that provide incomplete rankings, principles that rank uncertain alternatives, best choices from feasible sets, and applications. The chapters are divided, with mathematical arguments confined to the second part. The first part is intended to make the arguments accessible to a more general readership. Although the book can be read as a defense of the critical-level generalized-utilitarian class of principles, comprehensive examinations of other classes are included.

This book presents an exploration of the idea of the common or social good, extended so that alternatives with different populations can be ranked. The approach is, in the main, welfarist, basing rankings on the well-being, broadly conceived, of those who are alive (or ever lived). The axiomatic method is employed, and topics investigated include: the measurement of individual well-being, social attitudes toward inequality of well-being, the main classes of population principles, principles that provide incomplete rankings, principles that rank uncertain alternatives, best choices from feasible sets, and applications. The chapters are divided, with mathematical arguments confined to the second part. The first part is intended to make the arguments accessible to a more general readership. Although the book can be read as a defense of the critical-level generalized-utilitarian class of principles, comprehensive examinations of other classes are included.

In Consistency, Choice, and Rationality, economic theorists Walter Bossert and Kotaro Suzumura present a thorough mathematical treatment of Suzumura consistency, an alternative to established coherence properties such as transitivity, quasi-transitivity, or acyclicity. Applications in individual and social choice theory, fields important not only to economics but also to philosophy and political science, are discussed. Specifically, the authors explore topics such as rational choice and revealed preference theory, and collective decision making in an atemporal framework as well as in an intergenerational setting.

Kollektive Entscheidungen, also Entscheidungen einer Gruppe von Personen für die Gruppe, spielen in allen Bereichen menschlichen Zusammenlebens eine wichtige Rolle. Das Buch bietet eine systematische Einführung in die moderne Theorie kollektiver Entscheidungen, wie sie insbesondere von Arrow begründet wurde. Es richtet sich an Studenten der Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften und behandelt die prominentesten Methoden, mit denen auf der Basis individueller Wertvorstellungen Gruppenentscheidungen getroffen werden. Ausgehend von konkreten Entscheidungsmechanismen, wie den diktatorischen, oligarchischen, rituellen und den Einstimmigkeits- und Mehrheitsentscheidungen, werden in axiomatischer Weise Eigenschaften bzw. Anforderungen an die Entscheidungsprozedur formuliert und diskutiert, die sicherstellen sollen, daß das Entscheidungsergebnis "vernünftig" ist. Zusätzlich werden auch neuere Ergebnisse über die Berücksichtigung interpersoneller Nutzenvergleiche bei der kollektiven Entscheidungsfindung, über optimale Kompromisse und über die Manipulierbarkeit kollektiver Entscheidungen vorgestellt.