UNCERTAINTY AND CRITICAL-LEVEL POPULATION PRINCIPLES

This paper analyzes variable-population social-evaluation principles i n a framework where outcomes are uncertain, We provide characterizatio ns of expected-utility versions of critical-level generalized utilitar ian rules, These principles evaluate lotteries over possible states of the world on the basis of the sum of the expected values of differenc es between transformed utility levels and a transformed critical level , conditional on the agents' being alive in the states under considera tion. Equivalently, the critical-level utilitarian value functions app lied to weighted individual expected utilities can be employed, Weight s are determined by the anonymity axiom.