▪ Abstract Well-being is a complex construct that concerns optimal experience and functioning. Current research on well-being has been derived from two general perspectives: the hedonic approach, which focuses on happiness and defines well-being in terms of pleasure attainment and pain avoidance; and the eudaimonic approach, which focuses on meaning and self-realization and defines well-being in terms of the degree to which a person is fully functioning. These two views have given rise to different research foci and a body of knowledge that is in some areas divergent and in others complementary. New methodological developments concerning multilevel modeling and construct comparisons are also allowing researchers to formulate new questions for the field. This review considers research from both perspectives concerning the nature of well-being, its antecedents, and its stability across time and culture.

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On Happiness and Human Potentials: A Review of Research on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(08)61690-6.pdf

Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.2307%2F3343168.pdf

Development as Freedom

A doubling in global food demand projected for the next 50 years poses huge challenges for the sustainability both of food production and of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the services they provide to society. Agriculturalists are the principal managers of global useable lands and will shape, perhaps irreversibly, the surface of the Earth in the coming decades. New incentives and policies for ensuring the sustainability of agriculture and ecosystem services will be crucial if we are to meet the demands of improving yields without compromising environmental integrity or public health.

/pdf/agricultural-sustainability-and-intensive-production-1h98l920tu.pdf

Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices

We review in detail a number of approaches that have been adopted to try and explain the remarkable observation of our accelerating universe. In particular we discuss the arguments for and recent progress made towards understanding the nature of dark energy. We review the observational evidence for the current accelerated expansion of the universe and present a number of dark energy models in addition to the conventional cosmological constant, paying particular attention to scalar field models such as quintessence, K-essence, tachyon, phantom and dilatonic models. The importance of cosmological scaling solutions is emphasized when studying the dynamical system of scalar fields including coupled dark energy. We study the evolution of cosmological perturbations allowing us to confront them with the observation of the Cosmic Microwave Background and Large Scale Structure and demonstrate how it is possible in principle to reconstruct the equation of state of dark energy by also using Supernovae Ia observational data. We also discuss in detail the nature of tracking solutions in cosmology, particle physics and braneworld models of dark energy, the nature of possible future singularities, the effect of higher order curvature terms to avoid a Big Rip singularity, and approaches to modifying gravity which leads to a late-time accelerated expansion without recourse to a new form of dark energy.

Dynamics of dark energy

In this paper that is a transcript of a lecture held to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith's "Theory of Moral Sentiments" the author who is a Nobel Prize winner in economics reflects on the relevance of this classic. He shows that Smith proposed a historical approach to institutional transformations as opposed to the authors who tried to advance a system of ideal institutions. The importance of Smith's views on impartiality in ethical evaluation of social conditions and in building a just society is also emphasized.

Adam Smith and the Contemporary World

There has been a shift, in recent years, in the understanding of the process of development. It is not a switch (as often portrayed) from a state-dependent view of development to a market-reliant view. Rather, it involves rejecting a "blood, sweat and tears" view of development in favour of celebrating people's agency and cooperation and the expansion of human freedom and capabilities. The market as an institution fits into this bigger picture. So do human rights and democratic values, especially as the vehicle of political incentives (complementing economic incentives). It involves, ultimately, a fuller view of human beings.Contents: 1) Experiences and Lessons; 2) Blood, Sweat and Tears? 3) Hard Build-up and the Role of Accumulation; 4) Hard Business and the Fear of ?Bleeding Hearts?; 5) Hard States and the Denial of Political Rights; 6) Capability Expansion: Human Capital and More; 7) Weights, Values and Public Participation.

Development and Thinking at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Об этике и экономике

Interrelations between Project, Sectoral and Aggregate Planning

A planning decision may be viewed as being based on three types of data: 

(1)

The ‘objective’.




(2)

The ‘technological possibilities’, usually representing resource availabilities and the possible technical relations.




(3)

The ‘feasibility constraints’, representing political, social and other non-technological barriers to the utilisation of technological possibilities.

Amartya Sen

Papers

Adam Smith and the Contemporary World

Development and Thinking at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Об этике и экономике

Interrelations between Project, Sectoral and Aggregate Planning

Strategies of Economic Development: Feasibility Constraints and Planning