Why does virtue lie in the middle ground? Rationing problems with commonly accepted equity principles

A rationing problem appears each time that the available quantity of a particular good is insufficient to satisfy the "objective rights" that a group of agents has on it. The most characteristic example is the bankruptcy of a company, hence the designation of such problems in the economic literature as Bankruptcy Problems. However, the previous description is applicable to many different real situations.;In this model, a solution called Bankruptcy Rule involves applying a procedure for each bankruptcy problem that ensures a distribution of the good that takes the differences among agents' claims into account.;The main purpose of this dissertation is to produce an in-depth analysis, in the context of rationing problems, of two important general concerns: discrepancy over the moral intuitions of a fair distribution, and the prospect of establishing measures to guarantee certain individuals' rights.;In terms of finding a solution, society has always taken care to propose a fair allocation when distributing resources, as pointed out by Lerner, among others: "People seem to have a strong desire to believe in a just world." In this regard, Schokkaert and Overlaet highlight two streams in the vast literature on distributive justice: one of philosophers-economists, and one of psychologists-sociologists. The former, more theoretical line, defines formal models trying to gather an acceptable interpretation of fair distributions. The latter, more informal and descriptive line, tries to explain the way in which people perceives fairness, and their behavior when facing distribution problems. However, Fairness hardly leads to a single viewpoint. In our framework, this discrepancy arises in a natural way, as any distribution in bankruptcy problems can be observed by focusing either on gains or on losses. We thus have at least two focal viewpoints, depending on whether we worry about the awards we receive or the amount of our demand that is not satisfied. We can also find many contexts where discrepancy over the proposed allocation results in two focal points.;The question, therefore, is: How can people reach an agreement? In Roemer's words, more information helps agreements to be reached: "Things become more interesting once we leave the restricted welfarist of bargaining framework and include information on resources, preferences, needs, skills and so on.";Translating these ideas to bankruptcy problems, the current work defines an extended rationing problem, the Lorenz-Bifocal Bankruptcy Problem , and makes a thorough analysis of the consequences of enriching the classical model of rationing with a third element, P, called set of Legitimate Principles, comprising basic ethical principles commonly accepted by a society to resolve a specific family of problems of this kind. The appearance of discrepancy is also analyzed, with the establishment of two focal rules, say f and g, by considering both the fact that rationing problems can be analyzed from awards or losses, and that the general desirable social goal is to treat everybody as evenly as possible. This idea is captured by the Lorenz criterion (Lorenz), in line with the work of Arin and Dutta and Ray, among others. Thus, our problem is described by the vector formed by a bankruptcy problem and the two focal allocations, which depend on the set of Legitimate Principles accorded by a society, that is, (( E, c), f (P), g (P)).;Regarding to establishing guarantees, the concern of ensuring minimum individual rights has been figured prominently in a high number of contexts. In this sense, a classical issue that is worth highlighting is the Universal Basic Income. This proposal involves the payment of a universal cash benefit to all citizens by the Administration, to which they would be entitled by the simple fact of being a full member of a community politics, regardless of income, employment history, availability for work, or the composition of her family. The Basic Income Earth Network has led to debate and research into the Universal Basic Income in the European Parliament and Commission and, in the case of Brazil a law has been approved to implement the Universal Basic Income for an indefinite period. Another context where the idea of guarantee appears, among other situations, is the establishment of a minimum wage in the labour market or, more currently, the U.S. Senate's debate of ensuring universal minimum health coverage. On the other hand, note that in our contex, many authors, from O'Neill to Dominguez, have dealt with guarantees in rationing problems.;Taking into the account these two general and prominent concerns, with the extended rationing problem, ((E, c), f (P), g (P)), we analyze the consequences of entering this additional information into the classical bankruptcy problem, according to each of the methodological approaches used to address these problems. Thus, this study is structured in three parts: Axiomatic, Strategic and Cooperative Games. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...