Abstract
We study the problem of making interpersonal well-being comparisons when individuals have heterogeneous preferences. We present a robust, but incomplete, criterion for interpersonal well-being comparisons that states that one individual is better off than another if the intersection between the extended upper contour set of the better-off individual and the extended lower contour set of the worse-off individual is empty. We implement the criterion in the consumption-health space using an online survey of 2260 respondents in the United States to investigate how complete the resulting interpersonal well-being comparison is. To chart the contour sets of the respondents, we propose a new “adaptive bisectional dichotomous choice” (ABDC) procedure that is based on a limited number of dichotomous choices and some mild non-parametric assumptions about the preferences. We find that one fifth of all pairs of respondents can be ranked with the criterion.
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