ECON0074 - Ethics in Welfare Economics

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Aims

In this course we shall explore the ethical issues and assumptions underlying standard welfare economics.  

These include:

• the moral significance of consumers’ sovereignty, the aggregation of consumers preferences in the concept of the social welfare function;
• the boundaries of the ‘society’ in whose welfare we are interested;
• the relationship between GDP and some concept of ‘happiness’;
• and aspects of distributive justice. 

They will be examined in the light of some main ethical theories, such as utilitarianism, libertarianism, and egalitarianism.  The overall aim of the course, therefore, is to provide students with an understanding of the problems of applying ethical theories to major contemporary economic problems.

Objectives

At the end of the course, students should

• have a good appreciation of the way that both positive economics and value judgements enter into the formulation of economic policy;
• understand the link between the relevant value judgements and major ethical theories that have a bearing on them, and feel comfortable about  the role of these theories in welfare economics;
• be able to analyse and comment on economic policy texts and debates that  combine ethics and economics.