Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

Why Satisfy Preferences?

Contents:

Author Info

  • Daniel M. Hausman
Registered author(s):

    Abstract

    Contemporary mainstream normative economists assess policies in terms of their capacities to satisfy preferences, though most would concede that other factors such as freedom, rights, and justice are also relevant. Why should policy be responsive to preferences? This essay argues that the best reason is that people's preferences are in some circumstances good evidence of what will benefit them. When those circumstances do not obtain and preferences are not good evidence of welfare, there is little reason to satisfy preferences.

    Download Info

    If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
    File URL: ftp://papers.econ.mpg.de/evo/discussionpapers/2011-24.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    Bibliographic Info

    Paper provided by Max Planck Institute of Economics, Evolutionary Economics Group in its series Papers on Economics and Evolution with number 2011-24.

    as in new window
    Length: 16 pages
    Date of creation: 05 Jan 2012
    Date of revision:
    Handle: RePEc:esi:evopap:2011-24

    Contact details of provider:
    Postal: Kahlaische Strasse 10, D-07745 Jena
    Phone: +49-3641-68 65
    Fax: +49-3641-68 69 90
    Web page: http://www.econ.mpg.de/
    More information through EDIRC

    Order Information:
    Email:
    Web: http://www.econ.mpg.de/english/research/EVO/discuss.php

    Related research

    Keywords:

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    References

    References listed on IDEAS
    Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
    as in new window
    1. Bauman, Yoram & Finkle, Aaron & Zerbe, Jr., Richard O., 2005. "An Aggregate Measure for Benefit-Cost Analysis," Working paper 310, Regulation2point0.
    2. Sugden, Robert & Williams, Alan, 1978. "The Principles of Practical Cost-Benefit Analysis," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198770411, September.
    3. Samuel Fankhauser & Richard Tol & DAVID Pearce, 1997. "The Aggregation of Climate Change Damages: a Welfare Theoretic Approach," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 10(3), pages 249-266, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Preferences in politics
      by chris dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2012-01-22 12:42:21

    Lists

    This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:esi:evopap:2011-24

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Karin Serfling).

    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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

    If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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