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8 - Individualism and Ethics

Samuelson’s Welfare Economics

from Part II - Developing Modern Welfare Economics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2021

By
Roger E. Backhouse
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

This chapter argues that, although Samuelson developed much of the standard welfare theory based on individualism and the Pareto criterion, he attached great importance to ethical judgments that went beyond welfarism. Following his teacher, Frank Knight, he consistently argued that welfare judgments had to be based on ethical assumptions, his social welfare function providing a way that the implications of alternative ethical judgements could be analyzed. He attached great importance to the distribution of income and his own ethical values involved non-consequentialist elements.

Keywords

SamuelsonKnightethicsBergsonsocial welfare functionincome distributionindividualismRobbins
Type
Chapter
Information
Welfare Theory, Public Action, and Ethical Values
Revisiting the History of Welfare Economics
 , pp. 186 - 207
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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