IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/epolit/v40y2023i2d10.1007_s40888-023-00301-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Justice vis à vis welfare: how Austrian welfare economics should fit in the Austro-libertarian framework

Author

Listed:
  • Igor Wysocki

    (Nicolaus Copernicus University)

Abstract

The present work calls for a modification of Austrian welfare economics so that it should be given a distinct role within the Austro-libertarian paradigm. To this end, we clearly distinguish between justice and welfare. We proceed by trying to stick to the spirit of Austro-libertarianism as firmly as possible. In particular, we operate within the universe of voluntary (viz. rights-respecting) exchanges, having assumed the libertarian absolutist side-constraints view of rights. Furthermore, we take for granted the Austrian actual preference satisfaction view. The specific purpose of the present paper is two-fold. First, we subject Austrian rights-based welfare economics to critical scrutiny. Concluding that the above theory begs the question in favor of free market, we assert that to gauge market efficiency we need to resort to some descriptive criterion, which could reasonably be deemed constitutive of welfare. And it is only then that the question of market efficiency is an open question.

Suggested Citation

  • Igor Wysocki, 2023. "Justice vis à vis welfare: how Austrian welfare economics should fit in the Austro-libertarian framework," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(2), pages 445-467, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:epolit:v:40:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s40888-023-00301-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s40888-023-00301-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40888-023-00301-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40888-023-00301-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hausman,Daniel M. & McPherson,Michael S., 2006. "Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy and Public Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521608664, December.
    2. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    3. Hausman,Daniel M., 2012. "Preference, Value, Choice, and Welfare," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107015432.
    4. Gene Callahan, 2013. "Liberty versus libertarianism," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 12(1), pages 48-67, February.
    5. Hausman,Daniel M. & McPherson,Michael S., 2006. "Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy and Public Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521846295.
    6. Hausman,Daniel M., 2012. "Preference, Value, Choice, and Welfare," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107695122.
    7. Boettke, Peter J., 1995. "Why are There No Austrian Socialists? Ideology, Science and the Austrian School," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(1), pages 35-56, April.
    8. Herbener, Jeffrey M, 1997. "The Pareto Rule and Welfare Economics," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 10(1), pages 79-106.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jonathan Anomaly, 2015. "Public goods and government action," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 14(2), pages 109-128, May.
    2. Hausman, Catherine & Stolper, Samuel, 2021. "Inequality, information failures, and air pollution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    3. Francesco GUALA, 2017. "Preferences: Neither Behavioural nor Mental," Departmental Working Papers 2017-05, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    4. Bogusław Czarny, 2011. "The Debate on the Nature of Welfare Economics in the Contemporary Methodology of Economics," Ekonomia journal, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, vol. 27.
    5. Mollie Painter-Morland & Geert Demuijnck & Sara Ornati, 2017. "Sustainable Development and Well-Being: A Philosophical Challenge," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(2), pages 295-311, December.
    6. Cheng Li, 2019. "Morality and value neutrality in economics: a dualist view," The Journal of Philosophical Economics, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, The Journal of Philosophical Economics, vol. 12(2), pages 97-118, May.
    7. Giacomo Bonanno, 2013. "Counterfactuals and the Prisoner?s Dilemma," Working Papers 6, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    8. Jonathan B. Wight, 2011. "Ethics and Critical Thinking," Chapters, in: Gail M. Hoyt & KimMarie McGoldrick (ed.), International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics, chapter 18, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Gordon Menzies & Donald Hay & Thomas Simpson & David Vines, 2019. "Restoring Trust in Finance: From Principal–Agent to Principled Agent," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 95(311), pages 497-509, December.
    10. Vitaliy Vasilievich Biryukov & Elena Vasilievna Romanenko, 2017. "Economic Behavior of Business Entities, Culture and Institutions: Specifics of their Interrelations in Conditions of Neo-Industrialization," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4A), pages 370-385.
    11. Dorian Jullien, 2018. "Under Risk, Over Time, Regarding Other People: Language and Rationality within Three Dimensions," Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, in: Including a Symposium on Latin American Monetary Thought: Two Centuries in Search of Originality, volume 36, pages 119-155, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    12. Dorian Jullien, 2013. "Asian Disease-type of Framing of Outcomes as an Historical Curiosity," GREDEG Working Papers 2013-47, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    13. Gerardo Infante & Guilhem Lecouteux & Robert Sugden, 2016. "Preference purification and the inner rational agent: a critique of the conventional wisdom of behavioural welfare economics," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 1-25, March.
    14. Hausman, Daniel M., 2023. "Eliciting preferences and respecting values: Why ask?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    15. Matson, Erik W., 2021. "Satisfaction in action: Hume's endogenous theory of preferences and the virtues of commerce," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 849-860.
    16. Lauren Larrouy & Guilhem Lecouteux, 2017. "Mindreading and endogenous beliefs in games," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 318-343, July.
    17. Jacobs Martin, 2016. "Accounting for Changing Tastes: Approaches to Explaining Unstable Individual Preferences," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 67(2), pages 121-183, August.
    18. Roberto Fumagalli, 2016. "Decision sciences and the new case for paternalism: three welfare-related justificatory challenges," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 47(2), pages 459-480, August.
    19. Cyril Hédoin, 2017. "Normative economics and paternalism: the problem with the preference-satisfaction account of welfare," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 286-310, September.
    20. Frooman, Jeff, 2021. "Where MLM Intersects MFA: Morally Suspect Goods and the Grounds for Regulatory Action," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(1), pages 138-161, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Austro-libertarianism; Justice; Voluntary exchange; Welfare economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K11 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Property Law
    • P1 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies
    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:epolit:v:40:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s40888-023-00301-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.