A Primer on Welfare Economics vs. Other Ethics

Edward Morey ()

Chapter Chapter 12 in Deconstructing Behavior, Choice, and Well-being, 2023, pp 363-406 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract I compare welfare economics with other ethics, including Buddhist, Mill’s liberalism, duty-based/deontological (Kantian and God’s will), virtue, and those based on group rights, things having rights, and inherent values. Buddhist ethics seems akin to welfare economics for those who suffer common quirks. Comparing ethics requires contemplating intent vs. consequences, and if consequences, which consequences (for WB, for God’s pleasure, for desires fulfilled, for liberty)? If WB is a criterion, to what extent, and whose (French people, all living humans, or all living and future animals)? Of practical significance is whether individuals choose their HRAP (highest-ranked available path) or even if a WB ordering can exist. And can individuals choose not to experience their HRAP? To be virtuous or to be dutiful, for example? In addition, there is why we need or want to judge right from wrong. Welfare economists view ethics that are not welfare consequentialist as bizarre. [“How could a Pareto improvement be wrong?” “Inherent values are nuts.] Nevertheless, most ethics reject welfare consequentialism.

Keywords: Ethical theories; Welfare economics; Buddhism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-36712-0_12

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