1998/10/01 by Robert Sudgen · 3 citations
Social Sciences · #Income, Poverty, and Inequality #Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics #Political Philosophy and Ethics
paper · doi:10.1017/s0266267100003874
openalex publication_date 1998/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
There is a long tradition in economics of evaluating social arrangements by the extent to which individuals' preferences are satisfied. This is the tradition of welfarism , which has developed from nineteenth-century utilitarianism. Increasingly, however, the presumption that preference-satisfaction is the appropriate standard for evaluating social arrangements is being challenged by an alternative view: that we should focus on the set of opportunities open to each individual.