Economic analysis, moral philosophy, and public policy [Third reprinted.] 9781107158313, 1107158311, 9781316610886, 1316610888

Table of contents :
Cover
Half-title
Title page
Copyright information
Dedication
Table of contents
List of figures
List of tables
Preface to the third edition
Preface to the second edition
Acknowledgments
One Ethics and Economics?
1.1 Economics and Morality in Contemporary Controversies
1.2 What Are Moral Questions and How Can They Be Answered?
1.3 How Is Moral Philosophy Relevant to Economics?
1.4 Organization of the Book
Suggestions for Further Reading
Questions for Study and Discussion
Two Ethics in Welfare Economics
2.1 A Shocking Memorandum
2.2 Eight Distinctive Features of Welfare Economics
2.3 The Economic Benefits of Exporting Pollution to LDCs
2.4 The Argument of the World Bank Memorandum
2.5 Should the World Bank Encourage Migration of Dirty Industries to LDCs?
2.6 School Vouchers
2.7 Conclusions
Suggestions for Further Reading
Questions for Study and Discussion
Three Ethics in Positive Economics: Two Examples
3.1 Is Unemployment Involuntary?
3.2 Overlapping Generations
3.3 Conclusions
Suggestions for Further Reading
Questions for Study and Discussion
Part One Rationality, Morality, and Markets
Four Rationality and Utility Theory
4.1 Certainty and Ordinal Utility Theory
4.2 Expected Utility Theory
4.3 Questions about Utility Theory
Suggestions for Further Reading
Questions for Study and Discussion
Five Rationality and Morality in Positive Economics
5.1 Rationality and Positive Economics
5.2 Self-Interest, Rationality, and Morality
5.3 The Moral Danger of Ignoring Morality
5.4 The Influence of Moral Norms on Economic Behavior
5.5 How Do Norms Motivate Human Actions and What Sustains Them?
5.6 Conclusions: Rationality, Morality, and Positive Economics
Suggestions for Further Reading
Questions for Study and Discussion
Six The Ethical Limits to Markets
6.1 Are There Any Limits to the Reach of the Market?
6.2 Market Virtues
6.3 Market Limits
6.4 Morals and Markets
6.5 Policy Implications: How Should Policy Respond to Morally Problematic Markets?
6.6 Market Alternatives
6.7 Conclusions
Suggestions for Further Reading
Questions for Study and Discussion
Part Two Welfare and Consequences
Seven Utilitarianism, Consequentialism, and Justice
7.1 Clarifying Utilitarianism
7.2 Interpersonal Comparisons of Well-Being
7.3 Justifying Utilitarianism
7.4 Contemporary Consequentialism
7.5 Is Utilitarianism Plausible?
7.6 Consequentialism and Deontology
7.7 Conclusion: Should Economists Embrace Utilitarianism?
Suggestions for Further Reading
Questions for Study and Discussion
Eight Welfare
8.1 Theories of Well-Being
8.2 Welfare in Economics
8.3 Against the Constitutive View: Well-Being Is Not Preference Satisfaction
8.4 Conflicting Preferences and Well-Being
8.5 Assessing Preferences
8.6 The New Hedonist Welfare Economics
8.7 Other Theories of Well-Being
8.8 Conclusions
Suggestions for Further Reading
Questions for Study and Discussion
Nine Welfare Economics
9.1 Preference Satisfaction, Pareto Efficiency, and Competitive Equilibrium
9.2 Pareto Efficiency, Pareto Improvements, and Benevolence
9.3 How Welfare Economics Narrows Normative Questions
9.4 Cost–Benefit Analysis
9.5 Objections to Cost–Benefit Analysis
9.6 Cost–Benefit Analysis and Social Welfare Functions
9.7 Putting Cost–Benefit Analysis to Use
9.8 Welfare Economics
Suggestions for Further Reading
Questions for Study and Discussion
Part three Liberty, Rights, Equality, and Justice
Ten Liberty, Rights, and Libertarianism
10.1 Freedom
10.2 What Are Rights?
10.3 The Importance of Rights
10.4 The Justification of Rights and Freedoms
10.5 Weighing Rights, Liberties, and Welfare
10.6 Libertarianism
10.7 Libertarian Paternalism
Suggestions for Further Reading
Questions for Study and Discussion
Eleven Equality and Egalitarianism
11.1 What Is Wrong with Contemporary Income and Wealth Inequalities? Consequences and Causes
11.2 What Is Wrong with Inequality Itself? “Basic” Egalitarianism and Prioritarianism
11.3 Egalitarian Objectives
11.4 The “Currency” of Egalitarian or Prioritarian Justice
11.5 Relational Equality and Equality of Moral Status
11.6 The Measurement and Importance of Inequality
Suggestions for Further Reading
Questions for Study and Discussion
Twelve Justice and Contractualism
12.1 The Social Contract Idea
12.2 Justice as Reciprocity: Rawls’s Theory of Justice
12.3 How Can Rawls’s Principles Guide Policy?
12.4 Other Contract Theories
12.5 Challenges to Contractualism
12.6 Conclusion: Social Contract Reasoning and Economics
Suggestions for Further Reading
Questions for Study and Discussion
Part Four Moral Mathematics
Thirteen Social Choice Theory
13.1 The Social Welfare Function and Arrow’s Theorem
13.2 The Interpretation of Arrow’s Theorem
13.3 Social Choice Theory and Moral Philosophy
13.4 Social Welfare Functions with Interpersonal Comparisons
13.5 Rights, Freedom, and Fairness in Social Choice Theory
13.6 Other Developments of Social Choice Theory
13.7 Conclusions
Suggestions for Further Reading
Questions for Study and Discussion
Fourteen Game Theory
14.1 What Is a Game?
14.2 Moral Philosophy and Some Simple Games
14.3 Cooperation and Justice
14.4 Paradoxes and Difficulties
14.5 Bargaining Theory and the Social Contract
Suggestions for Further Reading
Questions for Study and Discussion
Part Five Conclusions
Fifteen Putting Economics and Ethics to Work
15.1 Involuntary Unemployment and Moral Baselines
15.2 Overlapping Generations
15.3 Do Pollution Transfers and Vouchers Promote Welfare?
15.4 The Bearing of Capabilities and Primary Goods on Pollution Trades and Voucher Proposals
15.5 A Utilitarian Perspective on Pollution Transfers and Educational Vouchers
15.6 Other Ways of Evaluating Vouchers and Pollution Transfers
15.7 Conclusions
Questions for Study and Discussion
Sixteen Economics and Ethics, Hand in Hand
16.1 Health Care
16.2 Uber and the “Gig” Economy
16.3 Environmental Protection and Global Warming
16.4 Conclusions
Suggestions for Further Reading
Questions for Study and Discussion
Appendix How Could Ethics Matter to Economics?
A.1 Objection 1: Economists as Engineers
A.2 Objection 2: Positive Economics Is Value Free: The Standard View
A.3 Objection 3: Normative Questions Are Not Subject to Rational Evaluation
A.4 Answering the Standard View: How Knowing Ethics Contributes to Positive Economics
A.5 Conclusions: Ethics into Economics
Questions for Study and Discussion
Glossary
References
Index

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