Linear and Utilitarian Choice Functions: Revisiting Myerson’s Theorem

Myerson proved that every linear and weakly Paretian choice function is utilitarian. We revisit his model and result for the two-person case and supplement it with an “only if” direction. That is, we characterize the class of linear and weakly Paretian two-person choice functions. It turns out that these are the utilitarian functions with an “egalitarian tie-breaking.”