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WEIGHING LIVES – AN APPLIED ECONOMIST'S PERSPECTIVE*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2007

MICHAEL W. JONES-LEE
MICHAEL W. JONES-LEE*
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne
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Extract

Without doubt, Weighing Lives, like its precursor, Weighing Goods, is an excellent and thought-provoking piece of work. In the first place, it addresses a question of the most fundamental importance, namely: how should we aggregate the well-being of past, present and future members of the human race under the various possible states of the world that may, in the event, prevail? This involves, amongst other things, dealing with questions of aggregation across time, people and different states of the world; the issue of what constitutes a “neutral” state of well-being (i.e., one neither better nor worse than not being alive) and what is, in fact, the value of continuing to survive.

Type
Essay
Information
Economics & Philosophy , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , November 2007 , pp. 373 - 384
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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