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Date: | Fri Mar 31 17:18:43 2006 |
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----------------- HES POSTING -----------------
[Moderator: I've almost started new threads several times during this
discussion, but I haven't seen a clear break in the flow. With this post,
I think the conversation is so far removed from the original, that I am
starting a new thread. You are always welcome, when you post a message to
the list, to change the Subject line to indicate a new topic. Also, if you
received double postings of a recent Scott Cullen message, I apologize. I
don't know why the list software hiccups like that. HB]
In answer to Robin's comment ("Economics advanced when it was generally
admitted that utility was subjective"): In my view it depends on what you
mean by "advanced". In a logical sense, yes that is all true, but if you
want to conduct policy, some type of interpersonal comparisons are
necessary, which means that values play a role in all policy discussions,
and that we have to make sense of utility as something more. Cooter and
Rapaport in the JEL argued for a materialist welfare intepretation. Pigou
integrated some of the material welfare judgements into his "welfare
economics" which he called realistic economics--which he distinguished from
the science of economics. Robbins said that Pigou's work wasn't science,
which it wasn't, but it was one way to do policy. The attempt to do
economic policy without interpersonal comparisons led economics into a
sterile welfare economics. We are still trying to get out of it.
Dave Colander
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