Back to Buchanan? Explorations of welfare and subjectivism in behavioral economics

Arbeitspapier

In light of behavioral findings regarding inconsistent individual decision-making, economists have begun to re-conceptualize the notion of welfare. One prominent account is the preference purification approach (PP), which attempts to reconstruct preferences from revealed choices based on a normative understanding of neoclassical rationality. Using Buchanan's notion of creative choice, this paper criticizes PP's epistemic, ontological, and psychological assumptions. It identifies PP as a static position that assumes the satisfaction of given 'true preferences' as the normative standard for welfare. However, following Buchanan, choice should be understood dynamically as a process whereby preferences constantly regenerate. Accordingly, the meaning of welfare emerges from an ongoing quest for individual self-constitution. If this holds true, then rationality axioms cannot serve as a priori normative standards. Instead, creative imagination and learning processes must re-main central to any understanding of welfare in economics.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: Diskussionsbeiträge ; No. 2017-03

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Economic Methodology ; Other Economic Systems: Consumer Economics; Health; Education and Training; Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty
• Thema: Behavioral Welfare Economics ; Creative Choice ; James M. Buchanan ; Rationality ; Methodology ; Subjectivism

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Dold, Malte
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Wilfried-Guth-Stiftungsprofessur für Ordnungs- und Wettbewerbspolitik
• (wo): Freiburg
• (wann): 2017

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/162736
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:44 MEZ