The aim of this paper is to explain the process of diversification of normative economics by presenting the work of two authors: Tibor Scitovsky [1910-2002] and Amartya Sen [1933-]. While these two authors first contributed to traditional welfare analysis from within, they were subsequently...

The death of welfare economics has been declared several times. One of the reasons cited for these plural obituaries is that Kenneth Arrow's impossibility theorem, as set out in his path-breaking Social Choice and Individual Values in 1951, has shown that the social welfare function - one of the...

We study experimentally when, why, and how people intervene in others’ choices. Choice Architects (CAs) construct opportunity sets containing bundles of time-indexed payments for Choosers. CAs frequently prevent impatient choices despite opportunities to provide advice, believing Choosers...

We propose and construct an indicator of labour market well-being in Poland for the year 2013. The indicator is positively related to the degree of civilizational welfare, social welfare, material welfare and psychological well-being in Poland. We conclude that ameliorating the labour market...

In the framework of the revision of the Swiss CO2-Law and in the preparation of the international negotiations that place at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Swiss Government has proposed a set of instruments and two levels of...

Nowadays, the concept of multidimensional poverty, inequality, deprivation, and well-being is not uncommon. While theoretical progress such as capability theory has provided rigorous framework for multidimensional analysis, empirical methods and tools such as UNDP's MPI (multidimensional poverty...

Simon Grant and John Quiggin argue that taking the equity premium seriously—-the well-known fact that the average annual historical return of stocks is seven times that of government bonds and other debt-—has many implications, the most robust of which is that recessions are extremely costly...

Summary The theoretical consistency and practical applicability of traditional welfare economics has long been subject to controversy. More recently the challenge has been added from evolutionary approaches that the individual preferences on which the welfare calculus is based are themselves...

Abstract What did Coase teach about “The Social Cost Controversy” in the classroom? In 1972, an important year in the development of the economic approach to law, Coase taught “The Problem of Social Cost” and some important critiques of it, making his classroom a model of the market for...

Small and micro-enterprises play a significant part in most economies. However, in developing countries these enterprises have tended to be looked at from a development, or poverty alleviation perspective, rather than as potentially growing businesses. This paper explores the possibility of...