Economic Welfare

Edited by Tyler Cowen, Professor of Economics, George Mason University, US

'The articles are well chosen to cover all aspects of the subject in each case.'

• Contents:Acknowledgements • IntroductionPart I: Foundations1. Hal R. Varian (1984), ‘General Equilibrium Theory and Welfare Economics’2. Arnold C. Harberger (1971), ‘Three Basic Postulates for Applied Welfare Economics: An Interpretive Essay’3. Amartya Sen (1979), ‘Personal Utilities and Public Judgements: Or What’s Wrong With Welfare Economics?’4. Tyler Cowen (1993), ‘The Scope and Limits of Preference Sovereignty’5. Steven Kelman (1981), ‘Cost–Benefit Analysis: An Ethical Critique’6. Robert Cooter and Peter Rappoport (1984), ‘Were the Ordinalists Wrong About Welfare Economics?’7. Amartya Sen (1984), ‘The Living Standard’8. Tyler Cowen (1991), ‘What a Non-Paretian Welfare Economics Would Have to Look Like’Part II: Cost–Benefit Analysis9. Robert D. Willig (1976), ‘Consumer’s Surplus Without Apology’10. John S. Chipman and James C. Moore (1978), ‘The New Welfare Economics 1939–1974’11. Richard G. Lipsey and Kelvin Lancaster (1997), ‘The General Theory of Second Best’12. Robert C. Lind (1982), ‘A Primer on the Major Issues Relating to the Discount Rate for Evaluating National Energy Projects’13. Martin J. Bailey and Michael C. Jensen (1972), ‘Risk and the Discount Rate for Public Investment’14. Daniel A. Graham (1981), ‘Cost–Benefit Analysis under Uncertainty’15. T.C. Schelling (1968), ‘The Life You Save May Be Your Own’16. Richard A. Posner (1981), ‘The Ethical and Political Basis of Wealth Maximization’17. Ronald M. Dworkin (1980), ‘Is Wealth a Value?’18. Arnold C. Harberger (1978), ‘On the Use of Distributional Weights in Social Cost–Benefit Analysis’Part III: Social Choice and Utilitarianism19. Allan M. Feldman (1974), ‘A Very Unsubtle Version of Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem’20. Kenneth J. Arrow (1984), ‘A Difficulty in the Concept of Social Welfare’21. John Rawls (1972), excerpt from ‘Justice as Fairness’ 22. John C. Harsanyi (1955), ‘Cardinal Welfare, Individualistic Ethics, and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility’23. Amartya Sen (1970), ‘The Impossibility of a Paretian Liberal’24. Robert Nozick (1974/1995), ‘How Liberty Upsets Patterns’ and ‘Sen’s Argument’ 25. Robert Sugden (1978), ‘Social Choice and Individual Liberty’ and ‘Discussion’26. Derek Parfit (1986), ‘Overpopulation and the Quality of Life’Name Index