Justice and Equity

'The translation of Serge Kolm's seminal work into English has been long awaited by those working in this field. Kolm's cartesian analysis of distributive justice is a model of clarity and precision.' -- Hal R. Varian, Dean, School of Information Management and Systems, University of California, Berkeley Justice and Equity is concerned with the study of fairness and efficiency in the structure of allocation problems; it has become something of a classic in modern welfare economics since its original publication, in French, in 1971. An important part of Serge-Christophe Kolm's concept of justice (here as well as in his recently published Modern Theories of Justice) is the argument that priority should be given to the care of individuals whose basic needs are not being satisfied. Kolm also criticizes mainstream economics for being relatively silent on the question of justice and applies the tools of economic analysis to try to solve the problems of both justice and equity. This first English translation of his seminal work will allow economists and political scientists, as well as philosophy and law students studying distributive and social justice, broader access to the author's tools and theoretical analysis. The analysis of equity occupies the first two parts of Kolm's text. The first part expresses basic concepts and presents, in particular, the criterion of equity. The second part analyzes the distribution of goods, services, and jobs. The third and final part discusses the ideal equality of welfare.