The Community of Advantage

The Community of Advantage
Author: Robert Sugden
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2018-06-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 019255879X

The Community of Advantage asks how economists should do normative analysis. Normative analysis in economics has usually aimed at satisfying individuals' preferences. Its conclusions have supported a long- standing liberal tradition of economics that values economic freedom and views markets favourably. However, behavioural research shows that individuals' preferences, as revealed in choices, are often unstable, and vary according to contextual factors that seem irrelevant for welfare. Robert Sugden proposes a reformulation of normative economics that is compatible with what is now known about the psychology of choice. The growing consensus in favour of paternalism and 'nudging' is based on a very different way of reconciling normative economics with behavioural findings. This is to assume that people have well-defined 'latent' preferences which, because of psychologically-induced errors, are not always revealed in actual choices. The economist's job is then to reconstruct latent preferences and to design policies to satisfy them. Challenging this consensus, The Community of Advantage argues that latent preference and error are psychologically ungrounded concepts, and that economics needs to be more radical in giving up rationality assumptions. Sugden advocates a kind of normative economics that does not use the concept of preference. Its recommendations are addressed, not to an imagined 'social planner', but to citizens, viewed as potential parties to mutually beneficial agreements. Its normative criterion is the provision of opportunities for individuals to participate in voluntary transactions. Using this approach, Sugden reconstructs many of the normative conclusions of the liberal tradition. He argues that a well-functioning market economy is an institution that individuals have reason to value, whether or not their preferences satisfy conventional axioms of rationality, and that individuals' motivations in such an economy can be cooperative rather than self-interested.

The Economics of Rights, Co-operation, and Welfare

The Economics of Rights, Co-operation, and Welfare
Author: Robert Sugden
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Total Pages: 204
Release: 1986
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780631144496

This is a new edition - with a substantial new introduction - of a book which has had a significant impact on economics, philosophy and political science. Robert Sugden shows how conventions of property, mutual aid, and voluntary supply of public goods can evolve spontaneously out of the interactions of self-interested individuals, and can become moral norms. Sugden was among the first social scientists to use evolutionary game theory. His approach remains distinctive in emphasizing psychological and cultural notions of salience.

Law and Development

Law and Development
Author: Anthony Carty
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 506
Release: 1992-08-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780814714737

This comprehensive volume brings together the major essays in the subject of law and development. The first sections concerns the relationship between legal systems and social, political and economic change in developing countries. The second section seeks to explain issues which concern law and development in the domestic context.

Achieving Sustainable Development and Promoting Development Cooperation

Achieving Sustainable Development and Promoting Development Cooperation
Author: Department of Economic & Social Affairs
Publisher: United Nations Publications
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2008
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9789211045871

This book presents an overview of the key debates that took place during the Economic and Social Council meetings at the 2007 High-level Segment, at which ECOSOC organized its first biennial Development Cooperation Forum. The discussions also revolved around the theme of the second Annual Ministerial Review, "Implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to sustainable development."--P. 4 of cover.

Humanitarian Logistics

Humanitarian Logistics
Author: R. Tomasini
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2009-02-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0230233481

Imagine planning an event like the Olympics. Now imagine planning the same event but not knowing when or where it will take place, or how many will attend. This is what humanitarian logisticians are up against. Oversights result in serious consequences for the victims of disasters. So they have to get it right, fast.

Contemporary Issues in Applied Economics

Contemporary Issues in Applied Economics
Author: Graham Bird
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 312
Release: 1991
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

Attempts to show how even the most basic elementary economic analysis can shed new light on some of the principle economic problems which face the world today. The non-technical nature of its approach means that the book may be of interest to non-specialists as well as economics students.