Review of Economic Philosophy

Tag: Well-being

  • Premature Death, Harm and Economic Welfare. Milestones for a Study of the Scarcity of Lifetime

    Abstract

    Economists measure the harm caused by a death by quantifying its opportunity cost (all what the person is deprived off due to her death). This calculus contradicts the thesis of the neutrality of death defended by several philosophers since the Antiquity. This article reviews old arguments justifying the neutrality of death, and, by a contrasting effect, reveals postulates of the economic analysis of death, such as the consolidated nature of lives, as well as the cumulative nature of well-being across time.

    Outline

    • 1. Introduction
    • 2. L’analyse économique de la mort
    • 3. Épicure : la mort n’est rien pour nous
    • 4. Lucrèce et la neutralité de la mort
    • 5. Sénèque et la vie gaspillée
    • 6. Wittgenstein et la vie intemporelle
    • 7. Bachelard et la vie fabriquée
    • 8. Nagel : la mort comme source de privation
    • 9. Le patient de Parfit
    • 10. Kamm : privation, insulte et extinction
    • 11. Broome et l’intuition de neutralité
    • 12. En guise de conclusion

    Keywords

    , , , ,

    Codes JEL : I31, J17

    [Read the article in Cairn]

  • “The Taste Approach.” Governance beyond Libertarian Paternalism

    Abstract

    Well-being can be promoted in two ways. Firstly, by affecting the quantity, quality and allocation of bundles of consumption (the Resource Approach), and secondly, by influencing how people benefit from their goods (the Taste Approach). Whereas the former is considered an ingredient of economic analysis, the latter has conventionally not been included in that field. By identifying the gain the Taste Approach might yield, the article questions whether this asymmetry is justified. If successfully exercised, the Taste Approach might not only enable people to raise their well-being, but also provide solutions to a number of issues such as sustainable development and global justice.
    The author argues that recently developed accounts such as Happiness Economics (HE) and Libertarian Paternalism (LP) both can be considered specifications of the Taste Approach. Furthermore a third specification is identified: Inexpensive Preference Formation (IPF). Whereas LP suggests that choice architecture should be exercised when rationality fails, IPF holds that governance in certain instances should improve choices also in absence of no such failure.

    JEL Classification: B40, D63, I30

    Keywords

    , , , , ,