Foundations of Utilitarianism Under Risk and Variable Population

Utilitarianism is the most prominent family of social welfare functions. We present three new axiomatic characterizations utilitarian (that is, additively separable) functions in a setting where there risk over both population size and welfares individuals. First, we show that, given uncontroversial basic axioms, Blackorby et al.'s (1998) Expected Critical-Level Generalized (ECLGU) equivalent to axiom holding that it better allocate higher utility-conditional-on-existence possible people who have probability existence. The other two novel extend classic axiomatizations utilitarianism from settings with either or variable-population, considered alone. By considering variable together, clarify fundamental normative considerations underlying policy evaluation.