This book presents an exploration of the idea of the common or social good, extended so that alternatives with different populations can be ranked. The approach is, in the main, welfarist, basing rankings on the well-being, broadly conceived, of those who are alive (or ever lived). The axiomatic method is employed, and topics investigated include: the measurement of individual well-being, social attitudes toward inequality of well-being, the main classes of population principles, principles that provide incomplete rankings, principles that rank uncertain alternatives, best choices from feasible sets, and applications. The chapters are divided, with mathematical arguments confined to the second part. The first part is intended to make the arguments accessible to a more general readership. Although the book can be read as a defense of the critical-level generalized-utilitarian class of principles, comprehensive examinations of other classes are included.

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Equivalence Scale Exactness (ESE) or Independence of Base (IB), a condition on household preferences and interpersonal comparisons, makes adultequivalence scales independent of utility levels. ESE is characterized by IncomeRatio Comparability (IRC) which assumes that utility equality is preserved by income scaling. If E S E / I R C is a maintained hypothesis, equivalence scales can be estimated from behaviour alone if preferences are not piglog. This condition is not met by a family of translog expenditure functions or by the Almost Ideal Demand System. A translog expenditure function can be used for the 'reference' household, however, together with an independent specification of the equivalence scale.

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