This innovative history of welfare economics challenges the view that welfare economics can be discussed without taking ethical values into account. Whatever their theoretical commitments, when economists have considered practical problems relating to public policy, they have adopted a wider range of ethical values, whether equality, justice, freedom, or democracy. Even canonical authors in the history of welfare economics are shown to have adopted ethical positions different from those with which they are commonly associated. Welfare Theory, Public Action, and Ethical Values explores the reasons and implications of this, drawing on concepts of welfarism and non-welfarism developed in modern welfare economics. The authors exemplify how economic theory, public affairs and political philosophy interact, challenging the status quo in order to push economists and historians to reconsider the nature and meaning of welfare economics.

‘Welfare Theory, Public Action, and Ethical Values is a collection of twelve essays at the intersection of the historical analysis of welfare economics and its contemporary challenges. The volume ties multiple and complex themes - fairness, wellbeing, the role of the individual in society - into a balanced whole. Many of the issues raised will be of the most fundamental importance to economic theory and public economics in the coming decades.’

Marianne Johnson - University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh

‘Normative economics is generally tightly associated to welfarism, the view according to which states of affairs should be evaluated only according to individual welfare as measured by utility. The contributions in this book establish that this received view is misconceived. On the basis of carefully argued historical studies, the contributors show that several major economists have departed from welfarist principles when tackling practical and policy issues. This historical assessment of the importance of welfarism in normative economics was much needed, at a time where economists have to deal with pressing problems such as climate change or the rise of economic inequality that involve a wide range of ethical values.’

Cyril Hédoin - University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne

‘This volume is a collection of highly thoughtful essays by various scholars. The essays provide fresh insights into the writings of some of the most prominent thinkers who have influenced the evolution of welfare economics. The volume is an important contribution to the history of welfare economics; it deserves a place in the bookshelves of every economist interested in conceptual issues relating to individual well-being and social welfare.’

Prasanta K. Pattanaik - University of California, Riverside

‘The individual preference satisfaction-based version of welfarism that dominated welfare economics since the middle of the twentieth century has always had critics, but in recent decades these critical voices have become more influential. These changes have many sources, but two that stand out are the capability approach originating with Amartya Sen, and behavioral welfare economics originating in attempts to reconcile welfare and behavioral economics. This volume clearly demonstrates that non-welfarist positions have actually been much more prevalent in the history of economics than generally recognized by either practicing economists or most historians of economic thought.’

Wade Hands - University of Puget Sound

‘This book is a must read for anyone interested in the history of welfare economics, a new and very exciting stream of research. This highly original collective work convincingly showing how economists step outside from the welfarist framework when engaged with practice. The book thus challenges the common idea that economists have adopted a welfarist approach.’

Herrade Igersheim-Chauvet - French National Center for Scientific Research

'… an intellectually deep and richly detailed edited collection that will be found rewarding by intellectual historians, philosophers of methodology in economics, and welfare economists alike.'

Matthew D. Adler Source: The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought