IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/revpoe/v20y2008i2p233-256.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From 'Hume's Law' to Problem- and Policy-Analysis for Human Development. Sen after Dewey, Myrdal, Streeten, Stretton and Haq

Author

Listed:
  • Des Gasper

Abstract

Much of Amartya Sen's work has been policy-related, but his methodology of policy analysis has not been explained in detail. Action-related social science involves value-imbued procedures that guide choices. This theme was explored by Streeten and Stretton, and earlier by Dewey and Myrdal. Assisted by Jean Dreze, Sen has evolved a form of policy analysis guided by humanist values rather than those of mainstream economics. Features of this methodology include the following: (1) a wider range of values employed in valuation, with central attention on: how do and can people live?; (2) conceptual investigation of the wider range of values; (3) use of the wider range of values to guide choice of topics and boundaries of analysis; (4) a focus on human realities, not an arbitrary slice of reality selected according to commercial significance and convenience for measurement; (5) using a wider range of values to guide other decisions in analysis; thus, there is a focus on the socio-economic significance of the result; and (6) a matching focus on a wide range of potential policy means. This paper characterizes Sen's policy analysis methodology, its roots in earlier work, and its relations to the UNDP Human Development approach and kindred approaches.

Suggested Citation

  • Des Gasper, 2008. "From 'Hume's Law' to Problem- and Policy-Analysis for Human Development. Sen after Dewey, Myrdal, Streeten, Stretton and Haq," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 233-256.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:20:y:2008:i:2:p:233-256
    DOI: 10.1080/09538250701819701
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09538250701819701
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09538250701819701?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. James Angresano, 1997. "The Political Economy of Gunnar Myrdal," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1196.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hernández G., Ángel G. & Díaz Morales, Katty Marisabel, 2020. "Hambre y hambrunas: una interpretación contemporánea," Agroalimentaria Journal - Revista Agroalimentaria, Centro de Investigaciones Agroalimentarias, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales, Universidad de los Andes, vol. 26(50).
    2. Ballet, Jérôme & Koffi, Jean-Marcel & Pelenc, Jérôme, 2013. "Environment, justice and the capability approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 28-34.

    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. Gasper, D.R., 2007. "Problem- and policy-analysis for human development," ISS Working Papers - General Series 18743, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    2. Sebastian Berger & Wolfram Elsner, 2007. "European Contributions to Evolutionary Institutional Economics: The Cases of ‘Cumulative Circular Causation’ (CCC) and ‘Open Systems Approach’ (OSA). Some Methodological and Policy Implications," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 529-537, June.
    3. Des Gasper, 2011. "Pioneering the Human Development Revolution: Analysing the Trajectory of Mahbub ul Haq," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 433-456.
    4. Noël Bouopda & Gael Fokam & Lionel Douanla, 2021. "Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation in Africa," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 5(08), pages 01-08, August.
    5. Dostaler, Gilles, 2009. "Cyrille FERRATON, « Les valeurs guident et accompagnent notre recherche » : l’institutionnalisme de Myrdal, Paris, ENS Éditions, 2008, 88 p," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 85(3), pages 355-358, septembre.

    More about this item

    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:taf:revpoe:v:20:y:2008:i:2:p:233-256. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CRPE20 .

    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.