Q. Define Heterogeneity?

We know that breaking of the assumptions of homogeneity of agents, in welfare economics, makes it difficult to define social welfare function. Breaking of the assumption of homogeneity means we are going to accept that agents are not homogeneous, i.e., not identical in their tastes and preferences, incomes and intellectual grounds, in other words, they are heterogeneous.

Remember, this heterogeneity is the cause of conflict. Conflict is the cause of political existence. Its importance has been appreciated in some economic literature of public policy. Atkinson and Stieglitz (1900), for example, write, "If everyone had identical tastes and endowments, then many public finance questions would lose their significance, and this is particularly true of the behaviour of the state. If the interests of the members of society could be treated as those of ‘representative' individual, then the role of state would be reduced to that of efficiently carrying out agreed decision."