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Which values should be built into economic measures?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2019

S. Andrew Schroeder Open the ORCID record for S. Andrew Schroeder [Opens in a new window]
S. Andrew Schroeder*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Claremont McKenna College, 850 Columbia Ave, Claremont, CA 91711, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Many economic measures are structured to reflect ethical values. I describe three attitudes towards this: maximalism, according to which we should aim to build all relevant values into measures; minimalism, according to which we should aim to keep values out of measures; and an intermediate view. I argue the intermediate view is likely correct, but existing versions are inadequate. In particular, economists have strong reason to structure measures to reflect fixed, as opposed to user-assessable, values. This implies that, despite disagreement about precisely how to do so, economists should standardly adjust QALYs and DALYs to reflect egalitarian values.

Keywords

values in economicsmeasurementinequalityDALYQALY
Type
Article
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , November 2019 , pp. 521 - 536
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© Cambridge University Press 2019 

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