Capitalizing on the recent work in social choice theory, I re-examine the foundations of post-Pigovian welfare economics and social choice theory. The structure of the “old” and “new” welfare economics is critically scrutinized, and the culprits of the poverty of welfare economics as well as of Arrovian social choice theory are boiled down to their common informational basis, referred to as welfarist-consequentialism. Alternative avenues that may be taken in an attempt to escape from the poverty of normative economics are identified and examined. These are focused on interpersonal comparisons of welfare levels, opportunity preferences and the procedural fairness of social choice.



JEL Classification Numbers: B21, D63, D71.

James Meade at Eighty

Presidential Address: Welfare Economics Beyond Welfarist-consequentialism

The interview was conducted on October 4, 2007, during a Workshop associated with the 2007 Condorcet lectures delivered by Kotaro Suzumura on October 4 and 5, 2007 at the University of Caen. It was revised and expanded substantially on the occasion of Bossert’s visit to Waseda University, where Suzumura taught social choice theory and public philosophy over six years after his retirement from Hitotsubashi University until the end of March 2014.

/pdf/an-interview-with-kotaro-suzumura-t4j0xzgf9s.pdf

An Interview with Kotaro Suzumura

The publication in 1978 of a report on The Structure and Reform of Direct Taxation by a committee headed by the economist James Meade marked the first fundamental study of the UK tax system...

/pdf/incentives-inequality-and-taxation-the-meade-committee-52vun6xw9q.pdf

Incentives, inequality and taxation: The Meade Committee Report on the Structure and Reform of Direct Taxation (1978)

The intelligent radical on economic policy: an essay on the work of james edward meade

Meade was a political economist, following in the footsteps of Smith and Marshall, who wanted to do good. Always meticulous in his scientific standards, he was a socially committed persuader as well. His goal was agathotopia, ‘a good place to live in’. Wishing to bring about social change, he ranged widely over a number of policy issues. The coverage makes it difficult for some readers to grasp the links between his pure, often abstract, economics, and the political balance which he most wanted to sway. Polite and self-effacing, he believed that public opinion was on his side.

James Meade at Eighty

Citations

Presidential Address: Welfare Economics Beyond Welfarist-consequentialism

An Interview with Kotaro Suzumura

Incentives, inequality and taxation: The Meade Committee Report on the Structure and Reform of Direct Taxation (1978)

The intelligent radical on economic policy: an essay on the work of james edward meade

What Meade Meant