Recent Developments in Welfarist Social Choice

This chapter introduces the reader to some important developments in welfare-based social choice since the publication of the first edition of this Handbook. First, I consider generalizations of the social welfare functional framework which have been used to study problems in which utility assignments are made by multiple observers or in which individuals have multiple dimensions of welfare. Second, I discuss some important advances in variable-population social welfare theory beyond what is covered in Bossert and Weymark's chapter. Third, I explain a critique of the informational invariance conditions around which Bossert and Weymark's chapter is organized, and some possible lessons and ways forward in light of this critique. I highlight some connections between these three seemingly disparate developments throughout the chapter.