Welfare Economics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23619123 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kaushik Basu (0000-0002-3705-055X, Cornell University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Pages | 1-2 |
| Publication date | 2015-01-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Wiley Encyclopedia of Management (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/9781118785317.weom020186 |
| OpenAlex | W4243177831 |
| ISBN | 9781118785317 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
Welfare economics is the study of decision‐making with the aim of enhancing social welfare, in contrast to an individual's happiness or a firm's profit. This subject should be of value to government (since government is meant to be an agency for promoting social welfare); to an individual who is not committed solely to enhancing his or her own happiness; or even to the “enlightened” firm or business corporation that seeks not only to increase its profit but also has some commitment to the general well‐being of society. Welfare economics has two main concerns: (i) the abstract problem of deciding what constitutes social welfare; and (ii) the more mundane one of deciding how to choose between projects, taxation schemes, industrial regulation, environmental policy, and so on, given some agreed‐upon notion of social welfare. The most influential position has been a utilitarian one – however, it has been criticized. This analysis looks at Vilfredo Pareto's Pareto Optimality and Arrow's impossibility theorem; and it recognizes the place of welfare economics in the economist's repertoire.
Agency (philosophy) · Arrow · Economics · Government (linguistics) · Happiness · Market economy · Microeconomics · Pareto principle · Political science · Positive economics · Profit (economics) · Public economics · Social science · Social Welfare · Sociology · Welfare · Economic Theory and Institutions · Economic Theory and Policy · Law · Political Economy and Marxism
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |