Economic Welfare and Social Justice
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2113105 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nicholas Barr (0000-0002-5325-2055, London School of Economics and Political Science, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1985 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 175-187 |
| Publication date | 1985-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Social Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0047-2794 • E-ISSN: 1469-7823 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0047279400014501 |
| OpenAlex | W2106708456 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
Two results are established in this paper. First, economic efficiency is an appropriate aim of policy under most definitions of social justice, including those of libertarians, utilitarians, Rawls and socialists; an increase in efficiency, in other words, can raise social welfare under all these theories of social justice. Second, when production is fixed, no distribution can be socially just unless it is also efficient. Though the weight it is given will vary under different definitions of social justice, economic efficiency is therefore not simply a constituent aim of utilitarianism, but an important goal, whatever one's ideology. Considerations of efficiency are therefore of general relevance to the formulation of social policy
Distribution (mathematics) · Economic efficiency · Economic Justice · Economics · Ideology · Law and economics · Market economy · Microeconomics · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Public economics · Relevance (law) · Social justice · Social policy · Social Welfare · Sociology · Utilitarianism · Welfare · Welfare economics · Economic Theory and Institutions · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |