The behavioural economist and the social planner: To whom should behavioural welfare economics be addressed?

Robert Sugden

No 12-05, Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science (CBESS) from School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.

Abstract: This paper compares two alternative answers to the question, 'Who is the addressee of welfare economics?' These answers correspond with different understandings of the status of the normative conclusions of welfare economics, and have different implications for how welfare economics should be adapted in the light of the findings of behavioural economics. The conventional welfarist answer is that welfare economics is addressed to a 'social planner' whose objective is to maximise the overall well-being of society; the planner is imagined as a benevolent despot, receptive to the economist's advice. The alternative contractarian answer is that welfare economics is addressed to individuals who are seeking mutually beneficial agreements; a contractarian recommendation has the form 'It is in the interests of each of you separately that all of you together agree to do x'. Each of these answers should be understood as a literary convention which uses a highly-simplified model of politics. I defend the contractarian approach and show that it is less supportive of 'soft paternalism' than is the welfarist approach.

Keywords: welfare economics; behavioural economics; social planner; contractarianism; soft paternalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 D60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: The behavioural economist and the social planner: to whom should behavioural welfare economics be addressed? (2011)
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