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4 - Pigou’s Welfare Economics Revisited

A Non-welfarist and Non-utilitarian Interpretation*

from Part I - Plurality of Welfare in the Making of Welfare Economics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2021

By
Satoshi Yamazaki
Edited by
Roger E. Backhouse ,
Antoinette Baujard  and
Tamotsu Nishizawa
Roger E. Backhouse
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham and Erasmus University Rotterdam
Antoinette Baujard
Affiliation:
Université de Lyon et Université Jean Monnet à Saint-Étienne
Tamotsu Nishizawa
Affiliation:
Teikyo University Japan
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Summary

We re-examine Pigou’s ethics in welfare economics with respect to welfarist or non-welfarist (more broadly, utilitarian or non-utilitarian) concepts based on various perspectives, such as incommensurability among utility and people, basic need information approach, non-welfarist justification of the national minimum, and methodological individualism in axiology. Consequently, we could detect certain non-welfarist approaches in his welfare economics, which squarely challenges the orthodox understanding of his works. We can assert that the deviation from simple welfarism was a result of practical considerations. Furthermore, apart from the dichotomy about welfarist and non-welfarist viewpoints, we present novel assessments of Pigou’s welfare notion: a hybrid strategy for the enhancement of people’s well-being. We show that his overall welfare idea involves both subjective and objective accounts and has a three-layered welfare strategy: bare and raw preferences turn into educated and refined ones via objective needs.

Keywords

Welfare economicsThe Cambridge school of economicsUtilitarianismwelfarismhedonismwell-beingPigou
Type
Chapter
Information
Welfare Theory, Public Action, and Ethical Values
Revisiting the History of Welfare Economics
 , pp. 97 - 117
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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