Social welfare function

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-025920",
  "term": "Social welfare function",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definition": "Establishes criteria under which efficiency and equity outcomes are transformed into a single metric, making them directly comparable. A potential output of such a function is a ranking of policy outcomes that have different aggregate levels and distributions of net benefits. A social welfare function can provide empirical evidence that a policy alternative yielding higher net benefits, but a less equitable distribution of wealth, ranks better or worse than a less efficient alternative with more egalitarian distributional consequences.",
  "subject": "General environmental",
  "references": [
    "Preparing Economic Analyses Glossary; Economic Analyses Glossary"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/social-welfare-function/"
}