The Invisible Hand and Modern Welfare Economics

The Invisible Hand and Modern Welfare Economics PDF Author: Joseph E. Stiglitz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Welfare economics
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
This paper reviews and puts into perspective recent work reassessing the first and second Fundamental Theorems of Welfare Economics. It assesses the implications of the Greenwald-Stiglitz theorem establishing the (constrained) Pareto inefficiency of market economies with imperfect information and incomplete markets as well as recent work on endogenous technological change. The information theoretic limitations to the Second Fundamental Theorem are also discussed, including the inability to separate out issues of equity and efficiency. The final sections of the paper consider the consequences of these problems for economic organization, economic policy, and the role of ideology in the belief in the Invisible Hand.

The Invisible Hand and Modern Welfare Economics

The Invisible Hand and Modern Welfare Economics PDF Author: Joseph E. Stiglitz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Welfare economics
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
This paper reviews and puts into perspective recent work reassessing the first and second Fundamental Theorems of Welfare Economics. It assesses the implications of the Greenwald-Stiglitz theorem establishing the (constrained) Pareto inefficiency of market economies with imperfect information and incomplete markets as well as recent work on endogenous technological change. The information theoretic limitations to the Second Fundamental Theorem are also discussed, including the inability to separate out issues of equity and efficiency. The final sections of the paper consider the consequences of these problems for economic organization, economic policy, and the role of ideology in the belief in the Invisible Hand.

Welfare Theory, Public Action, and Ethical Values

Welfare Theory, Public Action, and Ethical Values PDF Author: Roger E. Backhouse
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108898696
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
This innovative history of welfare economics challenges the view that welfare economics can be discussed without taking ethical values into account. Whatever their theoretical commitments, when economists have considered practical problems relating to public policy, they have adopted a wider range of ethical values, whether equality, justice, freedom, or democracy. Even canonical authors in the history of welfare economics are shown to have adopted ethical positions different from those with which they are commonly associated. Welfare Theory, Public Action, and Ethical Values explores the reasons and implications of this, drawing on concepts of welfarism and non-welfarism developed in modern welfare economics. The authors exemplify how economic theory, public affairs and political philosophy interact, challenging the status quo in order to push economists and historians to reconsider the nature and meaning of welfare economics.

Role of Classical Notions in the Interpretation of Modern Welfare Economics

Role of Classical Notions in the Interpretation of Modern Welfare Economics PDF Author: Irshad C. V.
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668372845
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 16

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Book Description
Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: A, University of Calicut, language: English, abstract: Welfare economics as a multidisciplinary body of knowledge aims at the best way of interpretation of human wellbeing and human endeavor. From the early welfare economics to the present modern welfare economics, a jubilant battle can be seen among different profounders in the welfare interpretation. The methodological difference provides us an opportunity to compare different welfare economic theories and also to improve the understanding of welfare economics. Classical economists were used dynamic and normative methodologies while later developments in welfare economics became narrow-minded by following static and positive economics by putting assumptions, mathematical and other models. Classical theories were influenced in the idea of ‘invisible hand’ and argue that, the social welfare can be enlarged at the point where the highest level of happiness scan be enjoyed by maximum number. On the other side, the later developments especially by later neoclassical theories began to weaken the role of ‘invisible hand’. Moreover the analysis was based on predicting social welfare by simply assuming two individual model frameworks. Here, vividly, the scope of modern interpretation became too extreme by neglecting the role of multiple factors of a plural society in the welfare determination process. Very recently, few interesting welfare interpretations are also coming with multidisciplinary approach like Samuelson’s social welfare functions, Sen’s capability approach etc. In fact, the methodological battle in handling both qualitative and quantitative variables, classical economists follows general equilibrium analysis while later developments focus on ‘Paretian Condition’ analysis. So the prediction of social welfare from the Pareto analysis of modern welfare economics has very limited scope than the classical economics.

The Invisible Hand

The Invisible Hand PDF Author: John Eatwell
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349203130
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
This is an excerpt from the 4-volume dictionary of economics, a reference book which aims to define the subject of economics today. 1300 subject entries in the complete work cover the broad themes of economic theory. This extract concentrates on the theory of the invisible hand.

Beyond the Invisible Hand

Beyond the Invisible Hand PDF Author: Kaushik Basu
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400836271
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Why economics needs to focus on fairness and not just efficiency One of the central tenets of mainstream economics is Adam Smith's proposition that, given certain conditions, self-interested behavior by individuals leads them to the social good, almost as if orchestrated by an invisible hand. This deep insight has, over the past two centuries, been taken out of context, contorted, and used as the cornerstone of free-market orthodoxy. In Beyond the Invisible Hand, Kaushik Basu argues that mainstream economics and its conservative popularizers have misrepresented Smith's insight and hampered our understanding of how economies function, why some economies fail and some succeed, and what the nature and role of state intervention might be. Comparing this view of the invisible hand with the vision described by Kafka—in which individuals pursuing their atomistic interests, devoid of moral compunction, end up creating a world that is mean and miserable—Basu argues for collective action and the need to shift our focus from the efficient society to one that is also fair. Using analytic tools from mainstream economics, the book challenges some of the precepts and propositions of mainstream economics. It maintains that, by ignoring the role of culture and custom, traditional economics promotes the view that the current system is the only viable one, thereby serving the interests of those who do well by this system. Beyond the Invisible Hand challenges readers to fundamentally rethink the assumptions underlying modern economic thought and proves that a more equitable society is both possible and sustainable, and hence worth striving for. By scrutinizing Adam Smith's theory, this impassioned critique of contemporary mainstream economics debunks traditional beliefs regarding best economic practices, self-interest, and the social good.

Information, Strategy, and Public Policy

Information, Strategy, and Public Policy PDF Author: Vines
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0631176934
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
In this volume, some of the world′s finest economists address a theme which is once again at the economic policy, namely the appropriate role for policy in a market economy. Can Adam Smith′s ′invisible hand′ mechanism be expected to allocate resources efficiently to meet the needs of society and is the role of government therefore limited at best? The authors draw on recent theoretical advances in the study of imperfect information and stratgic behavior to argue that the models of classical welfare economics are insufficient as a framework for understaning modern market economies The first two chapters by joseph Stiglitz and Frank Hahn represent assaults on the fundamental theorems of welfare economics: the notion of pareto-efficiency and the ability of the price mechanism to achieve it. Taking this as their lead, subsequent chapters focus on specific examples of market failure - the environment, the persistence of high levels of unemployment and the strategic behavior of governments in the making of international economic policy. The book represents a remarkable and accessible insight into the dilemmas of modern economics. It also demonstrates the fundamental role economic analysis has to play in the understanding of real problems and the formulation of appropriate policy.

Quiet Revolution in Welfare Economics

Quiet Revolution in Welfare Economics PDF Author: Michael Albert
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400887054
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 455

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Book Description
This ambitious work presents a critique of traditional welfare theory and proposes a new approach to it. Radical economists Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert argue that an improved theory of social welfare can consolidate and extend recent advances in microeconomic theory, and generate exciting new results as well. The authors show that once the traditional "welfare paradigm" is appropriately modified, a revitalized welfare theory can clarify the relationship between individual and social rationalitya task that continues to be of interest to mainstream and nonmainstream economists alike. Hahnel and Albert show how recent work in the theory of the labor process, externalities, public goods, and endogenous preferences can advance research in welfare theory. In a series of important theorems, the authors extend the concept of Pareto optimality to dynamic contexts with changing preferences and thus highlight the importance of institutional bias. This discussion provides the basis for further analysis of the properties and consequences of private and public enterprise and of markets and central planning. Not surprisingly, Hahnel and Albert reach a number of conclusions at odds with conventional wisdom. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Modern Welfare Economics and Positive Science

Modern Welfare Economics and Positive Science PDF Author: Nahid Aslanbeigui
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description


The Welfare Economics of Markets, Voting and Predation

The Welfare Economics of Markets, Voting and Predation PDF Author: Dan Usher
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719034336
Category : Economic policy
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
This work dwells upon two themes, each of which differs from traditional welfare economics - predation or taking (as a source of inefficiency in the economy) and the tension between voting and markets as alternative methods of decision-making.

The Hesitant Hand

The Hesitant Hand PDF Author: Steven G. Medema
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691150001
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
The author explores what has been perhaps the central controversy in modern economics from Adam Smith to today. He traces the theory of market failure from the 1840s through the 1950s and subsequent attacks on this view by the Chicago and Virginia schools.