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Introduction to special section in honor of Professor Amartya Sen. Fairness and welfare: An introduction
Author(s) -
Ng YewKwang
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
pacific economic review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.34
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1468-0106
pISSN - 1361-374X
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0106.00125
Subject(s) - egalitarianism , welfare , harmony (color) , utilitarianism , economics , honor , public economics , law and economics , positive economics , neoclassical economics , welfare economics , microeconomics , law , political science , market economy , computer science , politics , art , visual arts , operating system
After a very brief review of Sen and his contributions, Sen’s views on capability egalitarianism are discussed. At the ultimate level, equality in welfare weights (the utilitarian objective of maximizing the equally weighted sum of individual welfares) is the morally right objective. Ultimately, everyone wants to have high welfare, not equal welfare with others. Capability and welfare egalitarianisms may lead to very low welfare levels for all and hence be unacceptable. However, Sen’s capability egalitarianism may be very useful at the practical level, as a means to promote harmony and ultimately high levels of welfare. Other contributions (including one from Sen himself) to this volume are summarized and commented on.