INEQUALITY AVERSE COLLECTIVE CHOICE

The Lorenz-Pareto optimal frontier of a collective choice problem iden tifies a subset of all Pareto optimal outcomes which are not inegalita rian according to the Lorenz criterion. An inequality averse choice fu nction must thus be Lorenz-Pareto optimal in the sense that it should never 'choose' an outcome outside the Lorenz-Pareto frontier of any ch oice problem. We study the basic properties of the Lorenz-Pareto optim al choice functions and, in particular, obtain necessary and sufficien t conditions for rationalizability and representability of such choice functions. Several applications to the theory of Nash bargaining are also outlined. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.