Amitrajeet A. BATABYAL
Arthur J. Gosnell Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY 14623-5604, USA
aabgsh@rit.edu
Seung Jick YOO
Graduate School of International Service, Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
sjyoo@sookmyung.ac.kr
*Corresponding Author
Abstract
Batabyal and Yoo (2019) have recently obtained a significant result in their analysis of the use of utilitarian and Rawlsian policies by two cities to attract the creative class. They show that if one city switches to a Rawlsian or more egalitarian objective when the other city remains utilitarian, the aggregate economy of two cities becomes less egalitarian. We show that this result depends fundamentally on the assumption that the creative class population can be described by a triangular probability distribution. If this population is modeled instead with an inverted triangular probability distribution then the above result is reversed in the sense that the welfare of the worst-off member of the creative class is always enhanced when one city switches to a Rawlsian or more egalitarian objective, irrespective of the objective of the other city.
Keywords: City, Competition, Creative Class, Rawlsian, Utilitarian
JEL classification: R11, D63
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