What are the ends of economic activity? According to neoclassical theory, efficient interaction of the profit-maximizing "ideal producer" and the utility-maximizing "ideal consumer" will eventually lead to some sort of social optimum. But is that social optimum the same as human well-being? Human Well-Being and Economic Goals addresses that issue, considering such questions as:
- Does the maximization of individual welfare really lead to social welfare?
- How can we deal with questions of relative welfare and of equity?
- How do we define, or at least understand, individual and social welfare?
- And how can these things be measured, or even assessed?
Human Well-Being and Economic Goals brings together more than 75 concise summaries of the most significant literature in the field that consider issues of present and future individual and social welfare, national development, consumption, and equity. Like its predecessors in the Frontier Issues in Economic Thought series, it takes a multidisciplinary approach to economic concerns, examining their sociological, philosophical, and psychological aspects and implications as well as their economic underpinnings.
Human Well-Being and Economic Goals provides a powerful introduction to the current and historical writings that examine the concept of human well-being in ways that can help us to set goals for economic activity and judge its success. It is a valuable summary and overview for students, economists, and social scientists concerned with these issues.
About The Global Development And Environment Institute
Note To The Reader
Authors Of Original Articles
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Volume Introduction
PART I. Interdisciplinary Perspectives On Well-being
-Overview Essay
-Alternative Conceptions Of The Economic Realm
-The Meaning, Nature, And Source Of Value In Economics
-Human Values And Economic Behavior: A Model Of Moral Economy
-Material Well-being And Human Well-being
-The Joyless Market Economy
-Economic Institutions And The Satisfaction Of Human Needs
-Need Satisfaction As A Measure Of Welfare Outcomes
-Free Markets And Central Planning
-Community And Communitarianism
-The Ethical Limitations Of The Market
-Pluralism And Freedom
-Markets And Economic Goods
-Civil Society And The Market
-Personal Relations And The Market
-Political Goods And The Market
-Limitations Of Market Ideologies
-Conclusion
-Human Well-being And The Natural World And Nature, Intrinsic Value, And Human Well-being
-The Standard Responses
-Definitions Of Intrinsic Value And Their Conflation
-Objective Value And The Natural World
-Intrinsic Value And Human Well-being
-Taking Ethics Seriously: Economics And Contemporary Moral Philosophy
-Why Should Economists Be Interested In Moral Questions?
-Morality And Rationality
-Evaluating Economic Arrangements
-Four Bases For Overall Moral Judgments
PART II. Utility And Welfare I: The History Of Economic Thought
-Overview Essay
-Adam Smith On Justice And Distribution In Commercial Societies
-Jeremy Bentham
-Pure Versus Eclectic Utilitarianism: The Writings Of Bastiat And Mill
-Philosophy And Economics In The Writings Of Karl Marx
-The Neoclassics: Utility
-Jevons, Marshall, And The Utilitarian Tradition
-Thorstein Veblen
PART III. Utility And Welfare Ii: Modern Economic Alternatives
-Overview Essay
-Were The Ordinalists Wrong About Welfare Economics?
-Keynes's Political Philosophy
-Welfare Economics
-The Invisible Hand And Modern Welfare Economics
-Social Choice: The Science Of The Impossible?
-Some Nonwelfaristic Issues In Welfare Economics
-Game And Decision-theoretic Models In Ethics
-A New Welfare Theory
PART IV. Applied Welfare Economics: Externalities, Valuation, And Cost-benefit Analysis
-Overview Essay
-Beyond The Dark Clouds: Pigou And Coase On Social Cost
-On Lemmings And Other Acquisitive Animals: Propositions On Consumption
-Choices Without Prices Without Apologies
-'Ask A Silly Question . . . '': Contingent Valuation Of Natural Resource Damages
-Valuing The Environment Through Contingent Valuation
-Regulating The Electricity Supply Industry By Valuing Environmental Effects: How Much Is The Emperor Wearing?
-The Moral Dimension Of Cost-benefit Analysis, With Particular Reference To The Ozone Problem
-Intergenerational Transfers And The Social Discount Rate
-Cost-benefit Analysis, Safety, And Environmental Quality
-Selections From Benefit, Cost, And Beyond
PART V. Economics And The Good, I: Individuals
-Overview Essay
-Who Is Happy?
-New Challenges To The Rationality Assumption
-Frames Of Reference And Quality Of Life
-Against Parsimony: Three Easy Ways Of Complicating Some Categories Of Economic Discourse
-Should Preferences Count?
-Value, Desire, And Quality Of Life
-Me And My Life
-Amartya Sen's Contributions To Understanding Personal Welfare
PART VI. Economics And The Good, Ii: Community
-Overview Essay
-The Prosperous Community: Social Capital And Public Life
-Social Capital In The Creation Of Human Capital
-Winner-take-all Markets And The Growth Of Winner-take-all Markets
-Gang Behavior, Law Enforcement, And Community Values
-Institutions And Morale: The Crowding-out Effect
-Return Of The Citizen: A Survey Of Recent Work On Citizenship Theory
-Trust As A Commodity
-Amending The Economist's "rational Egoist" Model To Include Moral Values And Norms
PART VII. Economics And The Good, Iii: Society
-Overview Essay
-Welfare, Resources, And Capabilities: A Review Of Inequality Reexamined By Amartya Sen
-Distributive Justice, Welfare Economics, And The Theory Of Fairness
-Complex Equality
-Equality Of Talent
-Equal Opportunity Or Equal Social Outcome?
-Coherence Against The Pareto Principle And Equality
-Distributive Justice And Desirable Ends Of Economic Activity
-Aristotelian Social Democracy
-Social Unity And Primary Goods
PART VIII. National Development: From Basic Needs To The Welfare State
-Overview Essay
-The Evolution Of Development Thought
-Positive Freedom, Markets, And The Welfare State
-Functioning And Capability: The Foundations Of Sen's And Nussbaum's Development Ethic, Parts 1 And 2
-Connecting, Extending, Reversing: Development From A Gender Perspective
-Inequality And Growth Reconsidered: Lessons From East Asia
-Economic Theory And The Welfare State: A Survey And Interpretation
-Welfare
-What Is Distinctive About Swedish Social Democratic Ideology?
-The Three Political Economies Of The Welfare State
PART IX: Critiques Of National Income Accounting And Gnp
-Overview Essay
-The Concept Of National Income
-Output
-Divergences Of Measurement And Theory And Some Implications For Economic Policy
-Selections From Counting For Nothing: What Men Value And What Women Are Worth
-Measuring Household Activities: Some International Comparisons
-National Income Accounts And The Environment
-Environmental And Natural Resource Accounting: Where To Begin?
-The Indicators Crisis
PART X. Alternatives To Gross National Product: A Critical Survey
-Essay
References
Subject Index
Name Index