Abstract
Envy is a deadly sin, but then so is avarice or greed, and greed seems not to trouble economists. Envy does, however, perhaps because it is an externality. Different economists have also used the term in different senses. Veblen (1899) avoids the word ‘envy’, but one feels that some of the pleasure of conspicuous consumption may come from the malicious belief that it induces envy in others. Brennan (1973) uses the term ‘malice’ to indicate negative altruism – a distaste for the income of others – and ‘envy’ to indicate that the marginal disutility of another’s income increases as their income increases. For other concepts of envy, see Nozick (1974) and Chaudhuri (1985).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsBibliography
Bös, D., and G. Tillmann. 1985. An ‘Envy Tax’: Theoretical principles and applications to the German surcharge on the rich. Public Finance/Finances Publiques 40: 35–63.
Brennan, G. 1973. Pareto desirable redistribution: The case of malice and envy. Journal of Public Economics 2: 173–183.
Chaudhuri, A. 1985. Formal properties of interpersonal envy. Theory and Decision 18: 301–312.
Dubins, L.E., and E.H. Spanier. 1961. How to cut a cake fairly. American Mathematical Monthly 68: 1–17.
Feldman, A., and A. Kirman. 1974. Fairness and envy. American Economic Review 64: 995–1005.
Foley, D.K. 1967. Resource allocation and the public sector. Yale Economic Essays 7: 45–198.
Nozick, R. 1974. Anarchy, state, and utopia. New York: Basic Books.
Pazner, E., and D. Schmeidler. 1974. A difficulty in the concept of fairness. Review of Economic Studies 41: 441–443.
Pazner, E., and D. Schmeidler. 1978. Egalitarian equivalent allocations: A new concept of economic equity. Quarterly Journal of Economics 92: 671–687.
Rawls, J. 1971. A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA/Oxford: Harvard University Press/Clarendon Press.
Schmeidler, D., and K. Vind. 1972. Fair net trades. Econometrica 40: 637–642.
Sen, A.K. 1970. Collective choice and social welfare. San Francisco: Holden-Day.
Steinhaus, H. 1948. The problem of fair division. Econometrica 16: 101–104.
Steinhaus, H. 1949. Sur la division pragmatique. Econometrica 17: 315–319.
Suppes, P. 1966. Some formal models of grading principles. Synthese 16: 284–306.
Varian, H.R. 1974. Equity, envy and efficiency. Journal of Economic Theory 9: 63–91.
Veblen, T. 1899. The Theory of the leisure class, 1967. New York: Macmillan and Viking.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Hammond, P.J. (2018). Envy. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_179
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_179
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95189-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences