The Restoration of Welfare Economics

2011 ◽  
Vol 101 (3) ◽  
pp. 157-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony B Atkinson
Keyword(s):  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Welfare Economics ◽  
Ethical Code ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Teaching Of Economics ◽  
Economics Profession ◽  
Ethical Criteria

This paper argues that welfare economics should be restored to a prominent place on the agenda of economists, and should occupy a central role in the teaching of economics. Economists should provide justification for the ethical criteria underlying welfare statements, and these criteria require constant re-evaluation in the light of developments in economic analysis and in moral philosophy. Economists need to be more explicit about the relation between welfare criteria and the objectives of governments, policy-makers and individual citizens. Moreover, such a restoration of welfare economics should be accompanied by consideration of the adoption of an ethical code for the economics profession.

scholarly journals The Intellectual Legacy of Progressive Economics: A Review Essay of Thomas C. Leonard's Illiberal Reformers

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 1064-1083 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marshall I. Steinbaum ◽  
Bernard A. Weisberger
Keyword(s):  
Progressive Era ◽  
Review Essay ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Research ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Progressive Movement ◽  
Intellectual Elite ◽  
Economics Profession ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Intellectual Legacy

Thomas Leonard's 2016 book Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era argues that exclusionary views on eugenics, race, immigration, and gender taint the intellectual legacy of progressive economics and economists. This review essay reconsiders that legacy and places it in the context within which it developed. While the early generations of scholars who founded the economics profession in the United States and trained in its departments did indeed hold and express retrograde views on those subjects, those views were common to a broad swath of the intellectual elite of that era, including the progressives' staunchest opponents inside and outside academia. Moreover, Leonard anachronistically intermingles a contemporary critique of early-twentieth-century progressive economics and the progressive movement writ large, serving to decontextualize those disputes—a flaw that is amplified by the book's unsystematic approach to reconstructing the views and writing it attacks. Notwithstanding the history Leonard presents, economists working now nonetheless owe their progressive forebears for contributions that have become newly relevant: the “credibility revolution,” the influence of economic research on policy and program design, the prestige of economists working in and providing advice to government agencies and policy makers, and the academic freedom economists enjoy in modern research-oriented universities are all a part of that legacy. (JEL A11, B15, D82, J15, N31, N32)

Economic Analysis and Moral Philosophy

1998 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-293
Author(s):  
Diane L. Swanson
Keyword(s):  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Moral Philosophy

scholarly journals Economics with a Moral Compass? Welfare Economics: Past, Present, and Future

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Amartya Sen ◽  
Angus Deaton ◽  
Tim Besley
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Committee Member ◽  
Welfare Economics ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Amartya Sen ◽  
Editorial Committee ◽  
Moral Compass ◽  
Teaching Of Economics ◽  
Nobel Laureates

This conversation between Nobel Laureates Amartya Sen and Angus Deaton, moderated by Annual Review of Economics Editorial Committee Member Tim Besley, focuses on bringing ethical issues into economics, and the implications that this has for the practice and teaching of economics. A video of this interview is available online at https://www.annualreviews.org/r/EconMoralCompass .

Biosecurity, Diseases, and Invasive Species: Implications of Bioterrorism for Agriculture: Discussion of Elbakidze and McCarl and Pierre, Spreen, and Moss

2006 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-354
Author(s):  
William F. Hahn
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Species ◽  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Applied Theory ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Fast Growing ◽  
Important Input

Exotic and invasive species and bioterrorism are of increasing concern for U.S. policy makers. The economic analysis of these issues, especially bioterrorism, is a fast-growing, relatively new area. It is an area where an economist can provide important input into both policy and applied theory. The two papers in this section address invasive species issues.

EZRA MISHAN, CONTRARIAN AND SAGE: AN APPRECIATION

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (03) ◽  
pp. 1640012 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER SINCLAIR
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Environmental Economics ◽  
Welfare Economics ◽  
Central Figure ◽  
Milton Friedman ◽  
The World

For many of us, the world is far too complicated to allow economic analysis to furnish a clear answer on an issue of policy. Ezra Mishan disagreed. For him, as for his teacher and mentor, Milton Friedman, economics was a system of reasoning that cried out to be used for that purpose - and especially so if prevailing orthodoxy was in error. Mishan was the first economist to attack the then universally held view that economic growth must be beneficial. Fifty years later, as we mourn his recent death, he is an inspiring and central figure in environmental economics, and an example of what can be done with practical welfare economics.

scholarly journals Epistemic and ethical responsibility during the pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 117-125
Author(s):  
Andrea Klimková
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Ethical Responsibility ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Actual Content ◽  
Political Decisions

Abstract Intellectual (specialised) knowledge is omnipresent in human lives and decisions. We are constantly trying to make good and correct decisions. However, responsible decision-making is characterised by rather difficult epistemic conditions. It applies all the more during the pandemic when decisions require not only specialised knowledge in a number of disciplines, scientific consensus, and participants from different fields, but also responsibility and respect for moral principles in order to ensure that the human rights of all groups are observed. Pandemic measures are created by politicians, healthcare policy-makers, and epidemiologists. However, what is the role of ethics as a moral philosophy and experts in ethics? Experts in ethics and philosophy are carefully scrutinising political decisions. Levy and Savulescu (2020) have claimed that Ethicists and philosophers are not epistemically arrogant if they question policy responses. They played an important role in the creation of a reliable consensus. This study analyses epistemic and moral responsibility, their similarities, analogies, and differences. Are they interconnected? What is their relationship and how can they be filled with actual content during the pandemic?

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