Economics as a Moral Science

Abstract

Economists frequently make judgments about economic welfare, but there is today little discussion of the foundations of welfare economics. It is assumed either that there is unanimity of interests, or that there is general acceptance of utilitarianism. This means that economics cannot address many key policy issues and that important differences in ethical views cannot be recognized. This paper argues that it is a legitimate exercise of economic analysis to examine the consequences of different ethical positions, taking case studies of employment as a macroeconomic objective, and the role of capabilities in the measurement of economic performance.

The Methodology of Modern Macroeconomics and the Descriptive Approach to Discounting

“…4 Prescott (2006) illustrates this by pointing out that the aggregate labor supply elasticity theless, modern macroeconomists sometimes seem to claim that the calibrated or estimated preference parameters in their microfoundations do reveal the preferences of the population, and use them accordingly to draw welfare conclusions -which is criticized by, among others, Hoover (2006), Wren-Lewis (2007) and Atkinson (2009).…”

Tony Atkinson 1944–2017: A lifetime commitment to the study of inequality

“…In an article on "Economics as a moral science" (Atkinson 2009), he refers to the alternative views of Lionel Robbins and John Maynard Keynes regarding the relationship between economics and ethics. Robbins had asserted that while economics deals with facts, ethics is concerned with valuations and obligations; thus "the two fields of enquiry are not on the same plane of discourse."…”

Role models that make you unhappy: light paternalism, social learning, and welfare

“…Until quite recently, welfare economics as the study of how to conceptualize, justify, model and operationalize normative standards and policy goals had almost vanished from the agenda of mainstream economics (Sen, 1987;Atkinson, 2009). As the insights of behavioral and evolutionary economics into the complexity of human behavior -giving rise to "non-standard models of choice" -are now increasingly acknowledged in the profession, this has changed dramatically.…”