Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T02:14:47.355Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

13 - The Influence of Sen’s Applied Economics on His Non-welfarist Approach to Justice

Agency at the Core of Public Action for Removing Injustices*

from Part II - Developing Modern Welfare Economics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2021

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
Get access

Summary

This chapter shows that Sen’s (2009) non-welfarist approach to justice is greatly influenced by 1) his work on famines; 2) his empirical work on gender inequalities, specifically within the Indian society, that helped him to refine his approach to hunger; and 3) his involvement in the creation of the human development approach. All these engagements – seemingly completely separate from his theoretical work in welfare economics – have, in fact, fostered the formulation of a novel approach in which agency and public reasoning are the core elements.

Type
Chapter
Information
Welfare Theory, Public Action, and Ethical Values
Revisiting the History of Welfare Economics
, pp. 298 - 319
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alkire, S. 2010. Development: A Misconceived Theory Can Kill, in Morris, C. W., ed., Amartya Sen, New York: Cambridge University Press: 191219.Google Scholar
Arrow, K. J. 1950. A Difficulty in the Concept of Social Welfare, Journal of Political Economy, August, 58, 4: 328–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barsamian, D. 2001. Reflections of an Economist, Alternative Radio, USA, India Together, September.Google Scholar
Baujard, A. and Gilardone, M. 2017. Sen Is Not a Capability Theorist, Journal of Economic Methodology, 24, 1: 119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baujard, A. and Gilardone, M. 2020. ’Positional Views’ as the Cornerstone of Sen’s Idea of Justice, Working paper of the Condorcet Center for Political Economy.Google Scholar
Bréban, L. and Gilardone, M. 2020. A Missing Touch of Adam Smith in Amartya Sen’s Account of Public Reasoning: The Man within for the Man Without, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 44, 2: 257–283.Google Scholar
Burchardt, T. 2009. Agency Goals, Adaptation and Capability Sets, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 10, 1: 319.Google Scholar
Chanda, A. 1998. Amartya Sen Returns to Repay His Debt to Alma Mater, Rediff on the Net, 21 December, http://202.54.124.133/business/1998/dec/21sen.htm.Google Scholar
Crocker, D. A. and Robeyns, I. 2010. Capability and Agency, in Morris, C. W., ed., Amartya Sen, New York: Cambridge University Press: 6090.Google Scholar
Davis, J. 2012. The Idea of Public Reasoning, Journal of Economic Methodology, 19, 2: 169–72.Google Scholar
Desai, M. 2001. Amartya Sen’s Contribution to Development Economics, Oxford Development Studies, 29, 3: 213–22.Google Scholar
Drèze, J. and Sen, A. K. 1989. Hunger and Public Action, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Fetherolf Loufti, M. 1998. Amartya Sen, Lauréat du Prix Nobel d’Economie, et l’OIT, Le Magazine de l’OIT, 27 December: 1–9.Google Scholar
Fine, B. J. 2004. Economics and Ethics: Amartya Sen as Point of Departure, The New School Economic Review, 1, 1: 95103.Google Scholar
Gilardone, M. 2008. Dobb, Dasgupta et Tagore: trois sources méconnues de la pensée de Sen, Storia del Pensiero Economico, 5, 2: 107–31.Google Scholar
Gilardone, M. 2009. Inégalités de genre et approche par les capabilités: quelle mise en dialogue chez Sen?, Tiers Monde, 198: 357–71.Google Scholar
Gilardone, M. 2010. Amartya Sen sans prisme, Cahiers d’économie politique, 56: 939.Google Scholar
Gilardone, M. 2015. Rawls’s Influence and Counter-Influence on Sen: Post-Welfarism and Impartiality, The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 22, 2: 198235.Google Scholar
Harsanyi, J. C. 1955. Cardinal Welfare, Individualistic Ethics, and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility, Journal of Political Economy, 63, 4: 309–21.Google Scholar
Hirai, T. 2017. The Creation of the Human Development Approach, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kynch, J. and Sen, A. K. 1983. Indian Women: Well-Being and Survival, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 7, 3/4: 363–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nozick, R. 1974. Anarchy, State and Utopia, Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Peter, F. 2003. Gender and the Foundations of Social Choice: The Role of Situated Agency, Feminist Economics 9, 2: 1332.Google Scholar
Pressman, S. and Summerfield, G. 2002. Sen and Capabilities, Review of Political Economy, 14, 4: 429–33.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1970. Collective Choice and Social Welfare, Advanced textbooks in economics. Amsterdam: North-Holland, re-edit 1979.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1972. Technical Choice and Employment in the Non-wage Sector, World Employment Programme: Economic Research on Technology and Employment, Geneva: ILO.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1975. Employment, Technology and Development, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1977. On Weights and Measures: Informational Constraints in Social Welfare Analysis, Econometrica, 45, 7: 1539–72.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1979. Utilitarianism and Welfarism, Journal of Philosophy, 76, 9: 463–89.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1980. Equality of What?, in McMurrin, S., ed., The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Vol. 1, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 197220.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1981. Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1983a. Economics and the Family, Asian Development Review, 1, 2: 1426.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1983b. Development: Which Way Now?, The Economic Journal, 93, 372: 745–62.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1984. Family and Food: Sex Bias in Poverty, in Sen, A. K., Resources, Values and Development, Oxford: Blackwell: 346–68.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1985. Commodities and Capabilities, Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1987. Hunger and Entitlements, Helsinki: World Institute for Development Economic Research, United Nations University.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1989. Cooperation, Inequality, and the Family, Population and Development Review, 15: 6176.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1990a. Individual Freedom as a Social Commitment, New York Review of Books, 37, 10: 4954.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1990b. Gender and Cooperative Conflicts, in Tinker, I., ed., Persistent Inequalities, New York, Oxford University Press: 123–49.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1992. Inequality Reexamined, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1994. Amiya Kumar Dasgupta (1903–1992), The Economic Journal, 104, 426: 1147–55.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1997. Development Thinking at the Beginning of the XXI Century, in Emmerij, L., ed., Economic and Social Development into the XXI Century, Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1999a. Autobiography, The Nobel Prizes 1998, Tore Frängsmyr, Nobel Foundation, Stockholm, www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/1998/sen-autobio.html.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1999b. Democracy as a Universal Value, Journal of Democracy, July, 10, 3: 317.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1999c. Development as Freedom, New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 2001. Tagore and His India, The New York Review, 28 August, www.nobel.se/literature/articles/sen/index.html.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 2009. The Idea of Justice, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 2012. Values and Justice, Journal of Economic Methodology, 19, 2: 101–8.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 2013. The Ends and Means of Sustainability, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 14, 1: 620.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. and Sengupta, S. 1983. Malnutrition of Rural Indian Children and the Sex Bias, Economic and Political Weekly, 18: 855–64.Google Scholar
Shaikh, N. 2004. Interview of Amartya Sen, Asia Society Online, 6 December.Google Scholar
Swedberg, R. 1990. Amartya Sen, in Swedberg, R., Economics and Sociology: Redefining Their Boundaries – Conversations with Economists and Sociologists, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press: 249–67.Google Scholar
UNDP 1990. Human Development Report. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
UNDP 1995. Human Development Report. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
UNDP 2010a. Human Development Report. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
UNDP 2010b. A 20th Anniversary Human Development Discussion with Amartya Sen, pre-launch material for the Human Development Report 2010.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×