This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Review
  4. May 2011
  5. The Restoration of Welfare Economics

The Restoration of Welfare Economics

  • Anthony B. Atkinson
American Economic Review
vol. 101, no. 3, May 2011
(pp. 157-61)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

This paper argues that welfare economics should be restored to a prominent place on the agenda of economists, and should occupy a central role in the teaching of economics. Economists should provide justification for the ethical criteria underlying welfare statements, and these criteria require constant re-evaluation in the light of developments in economic analysis and in moral philosophy. Economists need to be more explicit about the relation between welfare criteria and the objectives of governments, policy-makers and individual citizens. Moreover, such a restoration of welfare economics should be accompanied by consideration of the adoption of an ethical code for the economics profession.

Citation

Atkinson, Anthony B. 2011. "The Restoration of Welfare Economics." American Economic Review, 101 (3): 157-61. DOI: 10.1257/aer.101.3.157

JEL Classification

  • A20 Economic Education and Teaching of Economics: General
  • D60 Welfare Economics: General