The utilitarian view of welfare economics
Abstract
In this chapter we will consider the criteria that economists use to form value judgments about the comparative desirability of alternate paths for economic policy. Recall that economics is a practical science, a science that produces knowledge in order to suggest courses of actions for improving human welfare. A criterion for judging is clearly necessary to be able to make judgments. In this chapter, that criterion is utilitarianism. It entered economic discourse with an influential 1789 work by the British philosopher Jeremy Bentham, the creator of utilitarianism. After presenting and commenting on the two fundamental theorems of welfare economics, we will first consider market ...
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