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Minimal Relativism, Dominance, and Standard of Living Comparisons Based on Functionings Prasanta K. Pattanaik Department of Economics, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, U.S.A. Telephone: (951) 787 5037, extension 1592 Fax: (951) 787 5685; e-mail: ppat@ucrac1.ucr.edu Yongsheng Xu Department of Economics, Andrew Young School of Economics, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, U.S.A. Telephone: (404) 651 2769 Fax: (406) 651 4985; e-mail: yxu3@gsu.edu This version: 17 February 2005  For helpful comments and discussions, we are grateful to Sudhir Anand, James Foster, Stephen Marglin, and Amartya Sen. 1 Abstract. This paper considers the functioning approach to the standard of living. It shows that, in evaluating standards of living, one is faced with deep-rooted tensions between the principle of minimal relativism, which requires some minimal respect for differences between the evaluations of different individuals and/or the differences between the norms of different communities, and the principle of dominance. JEL Classification Numbers: D63, D71, I31 Introduction The functioning approach to the notion of living standards is an important recent development in welfare economics. The core of the approach, initiated by Sen (1985, 1987) and Nussbaum (1988, 1993, 2000), consists of the idea that the notion of the standard of living should be formulated in terms of functionings (i.e., the ‘doings’ and ‘beings’ that have ‘intrinsic value’ for people). and capabilities rather than in terms of utility or commodities. Several related appr