Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-15T05:00:10.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Quo vadis: Does economic theory need a sustainability makeover?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Wylie Bradford
Wylie Bradford*
Affiliation:
Macquarie University, Australia
*
Wylie Bradford, Department of Economics, Macquarie University, North Ryde, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia. Email: wylie.bradford@mq.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Prof. Marglin argues for a new economics and a new conception of welfare as part of the move to a sustainable future. However, the typical criticisms of the treatment of welfare in economics appear wide of the mark, and there are good reasons to regard this treatment as accurate enough for the job at hand. The critics appear to miss how demanding the job of reshaping economics in their (implicit) desired image would be, and how unproductive it might turn out to be to insist on such a reshaping as a precursor to serious action.

Keywords

D6B5Social justicesocial policysustainabilitywelfare
Type
Symposium Articles
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 25 , Issue 4: Symposium: A new global economics? Environment, development, equity , December 2014 , pp. 551 - 562
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2014

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

Angner, E (2005) Subjective measures of well-being: A philosophical examination. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.Google Scholar
Ball, T (1985) The incoherence of intergenerational justice. Inquiry 28(3): 321–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanchflower, DG, Oswald, AJ (2004) Well-being over time in Britain and the USA. Journal of Public Economics 88(7): 1359–1386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cantril, H (1965) The Pattern of Human Concerns. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Christensen, E (2008) The Heretical Political Discourse: A Discourse Analysis of the Danish Debate on Basic Income. Copenhagen: Aalborg University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, AE, Etilé, F, Postel-Vinay, F, et al . (2005) Heterogeneity in reported well-being: evidence from twelve European countries. Economic Journal 115(502): C118–C132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, AE, Fritjers, P, Shields, MA (2008) Relative income, happiness, and utility: an explanation for the Easterlin paradox and other puzzles. Journal of Economic Literature 46(1): 95–144.Google Scholar
Daly, HE (1977) Steady-State Economics: the Economics of Biophysical Equilibrium and Moral Growth. San Francisco, CA: W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Daly, HE (1991) Steady-State Economics. 2nd ed. with New Essays. Washington, DC: Island Press.Google Scholar
Daly, HE (2013) Top-10 policies for a steady state economy. Daly News, 29 October. Available at: http://steadystate.org/top-10-policies-for-a-steady-state-economy/ (accessed 3 September 2014).Google Scholar
Di Tella, R, MacCulloch, RJ, Oswald, AJ (2003) The macroeconomics of happiness. Review of Economics and Statistics 85: 809–827.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easterlin, RA (1974) Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some empirical evidence. In: David, PA, Reder, MW (eds) Nations and Households in Economic Growth: Essays in Honor of Moses Abramovitz. New York: Academic Press, pp. 89–125.Google Scholar
Easterlin, RA (1995) Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 277: 35–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easterlin, RA (2004) The economics of happiness. Daedalus 133: 26–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easterlin, RA, McVey, LA, Switek, M, et al . (2010) The happiness-income paradox revisited. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107(52): 22463–22468.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Graham, C, Pettinato, S (2002) Happiness and Hardship: Opportunity and Insecurity in New Market Economies. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Gurin, G, Veroff, J, Feld, S (1960) Americans View Their Mental Health: A Nationwide Interview Survey. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D, Knetsch, JL, Thaler, RH (1990) Experimental tests of the endowment effect and the Coase theorem. Journal of Political Economy 98(6): 1325–1348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macintyre, AC (1966) A Short History of Ethics: A History of Moral Philosophy from the Homeric Age to the Twentieth Century. London: Macmillan Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marglin, SA (1963) The social rate of discount and the optimal rate of investment. Quarterly Journal of Economics 77(1): 95–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marglin, SA (2013) Premises for a new economy. Development 56(2): 149–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, A (1920) Principles of Economics: An Introductory Volume. 8th ed. London: Macmillan Publishers.Google Scholar
Myint, H (1948) Theories of Welfare Economics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Paden, R (1996) Reciprocity and intergenerational justice. Public Affairs Quarterly 10(3): 249–266.Google Scholar
Rawls, J (1971) A Theory of Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reid, T (1788) Essays on the Active Powers of Man. London: John Bell, and G. G. J. & J. Robinson.Google Scholar
Robb, J, Bigazzi, R, Lazzarini, L, et al . (2001) Social ‘status’ and biological ‘status’: a comparison of grave goods and skeletal indicators from Pontecagnano. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 115(30): 213–222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sahlins, MD (1972) Stone Age Economics. Livingston, NJ: Transaction Press.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, JA (1954) History of Economic Analysis. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Stevenson, B, Wolfers, J (2013) Subjective well-being and income: is there any evidence of satiation? American Economic Review 103(3): 598–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuchman, BW (1978) A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L (1953) Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar