----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- 
 
The original question which started this thread asked about surveys  
of welfare economics from Adam Smith onwards. The answers all  
seem to relate to relatively recent periods. This is understandable  
because welfare economics has only existed under that name and  
in something like its modern form since the late nineteenth  
century, but there is still an interesting question about the earlier  
antecedents of welfare economics. Offhand I dont know of any  
comprehensive survey. One way to trace relevant ideas back to  
earlier periods would be to look at untilitarianism back to Bentham  
and earlier, since this is surely where modern welfare economics  
came from. There is a big literature about this. Another way would  
be to look at writers like Adam Smith and ask what they said about  
what was good for individuals and for society, since these are, I  
guess, the basic questions welfare economics has to address.   
 
Tony Brewer ([log in to unmask]) 
 
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