Powered by OpenAIRE graph
Found an issue? Give us feedback
addClaim

Ex Ante/Ex Post

Authors: Barbara H. Fried;

Ex Ante/Ex Post

Abstract

This paper was written for a conference on legal transitions. The central question in legal transitions is whether it is appropriate for the government to offset (through grandfathering, direct compensation or other mechanisms) the ex post changes in wealth occasioned by changes in legal rules. Put this way, the government's appropriate response to the risk of legal change is just an instance of the larger question whether (and when) the government ought to intervene to bail people out of the bad ex post consequences of their (ex ante) risky choices. Over the past twenty years, a substantial literature has emerged in both philosophy and economics on this larger question. While economists have analyzed the case for ex post compensation primarily on welfarist grounds and philosophers primarily on egalitarian grounds, the two literatures have proceeded along strikingly similar lines, and converge on strikingly similar conclusions, albeit for their very different reasons: People should bear the consequences of their risky choices, subject to a limited exception when the risk in question is undesired but uninsurable. This convergence on an "ex ante" view of distributive justice results straightforwardly from the fact that the dominant strain in philosophy that has taken up this question over the past 20 years - so-called "luck egalitarianism" - is committed to the same strong ex ante perspective (for its very different reasons) as the rational expectations model of individual decision-making that dominates welfarist policy analysis. This article examines the convergence on "ex ante" justice in economics and philosophy, and the normative and empirical assumptions on which it rests. It then considers various challenges to the sanctity of ex ante choice. It concludes that many of these challenges deserve to be taken more seriously than they have been, and would argue in at least some cases for "ex post" justice - for bailing people out of the bad consequences of their risky choices - on fairness as well as welfarist grounds. It concludes, however, that most legal transitions do not themselves present a compelling case for ex post justice on fairness or welfarist grounds.

Related Organizations
  • BIP!
    Impact byBIP!
    selected citations
    These citations are derived from selected sources.
    This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
    4
    popularity
    This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
    Average
    influence
    This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
    Average
    impulse
    This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
    Average
Powered by OpenAIRE graph
Found an issue? Give us feedback
selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
4
Average
Average
Average
Upload OA version
Are you the author of this publication? Upload your Open Access version to Zenodo!
It’s fast and easy, just two clicks!