Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-p566r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T02:18:28.628Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Metric of Opportunity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Robert Sudgen
Affiliation:
University of East Angila

Extract

There is a long tradition in economics of evaluating social arrangements by the extent to which individuals' preferences are satisfied. This is the tradition of welfarism, which has developed from nineteenth-century utilitarianism. Increasingly, however, the presumption that preference-satisfaction is the appropriate standard for evaluating social arrangements is being challenged by an alternative view: that we should focus on the set of opportunities open to each individual.

Type
Essays
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arneson, Richard. 1989. ‘Equality of opportunity for welfare’. Philosophical Studies, 56:7793CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arneson, Richard. 1990. ‘Primary goods reconsidered’. Noûs, 24:429–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arrow, Kenneth J. 1995. ‘A Note on Freedom and Flexibility’. In Choice, Welfare and Development: A Festschrift in Honour of Amartya K. Sen, pp. 716. Basu, Kaushik, Pattanaik, Prasanta and Suzumura, Kotaro (eds.). Clarendon PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barry, Brian. 1995. ‘Arguments for basic income’. Mimeo, London School of EconomicsGoogle Scholar
Berlin, Isaiah. 1969. Four Essays on Liberty. Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Bossert, Walter, Pattanaik, Prasanta and Xu, Yongsheng. 1994. ‘Ranking opportunity sets: an axiomatic approach’. Journal of Economic Theory, 63:326–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broome, John. 1991. Weighing Goods. Basil BlackwellGoogle Scholar
Carter, Ian. 1992. ‘The measurement of pure negative freedom’. Political Studies, 40:3850CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, Ian. 1995a. ‘Interpersonal comparisons of freedom’. Economics and Philosophy, 11:123CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, Ian. 1995b. ‘The independent value of freedom’. Ethics, 105:819–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, G. A. 1989. ‘On the currency of egalitarian justice’. Ethics, 99:906–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dworkin, Ronald. 1981a. ‘What is equality? Part 1: Equality of welfare’. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 10:185246Google Scholar
Dworkin, Ronald. 1981b. ‘What is equality? Part 2: Equality of resources’. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 10:283345Google Scholar
Foster, James. 1993. ‘Notes on effective freedom’. Mimeo, Vanderbilt UniversityGoogle Scholar
Gibbard, Allan. 1979. ‘Disparate goods and Rawls's difference principle: a social choice theoretic treatment’. Theory and Decision, 11:267–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gravel, Nicolas, Laslier, Jean-Francois and Trannoy, Alain 1998. ‘Individual Freedom of Choice in a Social Setting’. In Freedom in Economics: New Perspectives in Normative Analysis. Laslier, Jean-Francois, Fleurbaey, Marc, Gravel, Nicolas and Trannoy, Alain (eds.), RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Griffin, James. 1991. ‘Against the Taste Model’. In Interpersonal Comparisons of Weil-Being, pp. 4569. Elster, Jon and Roemer, John E. (eds.). Cambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hausman, Daniel M. and McPherson, Michael S.. 1996. Economic Analysis and Moral Philosophy. Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich A. 1960. The Constitution of Liberty. Routledge and Kegan PaulGoogle Scholar
Jones, Peter and Sugden, Robert. 1982. ‘Evaluating choice’. International Review of Law and Economics, 2:4765CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klemisch-Ahlert, Marlies. 1993. ‘A comparison of different rankings of opportunity sets’. Social Choice and Welfare, 10:189207Google Scholar
Kreps, David M. 1979. ‘A representation theorem for “preference for flexibility”’. Econometrica, 47:565–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koopmans, T.C. 1964. ‘On the Flexibility of Future Preferences’. In Human Judgments and Optimality. Shelley, M. W. and Bryans, J. L. (eds.). WileyGoogle Scholar
McKenzie, George W. 1983. Measuring Economic Welfare: New Methods. Cambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mill, John Stuart. 1859/1972. On Liberty. DentGoogle Scholar
Nehring, Klaus and Puppe, Clemens. 1996. ‘Continuous extensions of an order on a set to the power set’. Journal of Economic Theory, 68:456–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nozick, Robert. 1974. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Basic BooksGoogle Scholar
Pareto, Vilfredo. 1906/1972. Manual of Political Economy. Trans. Schweir, A. S.. MacmillanGoogle Scholar
Pattanaik, Prasanta and Xu, Yongsheng. 1990. ‘On ranking opportunity sets in terms of freedom of choice’. Recherches Economiques de Louvain, 56:383–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pattanaik, Prasanta and Xu, Yongsheng. 1995. ‘On preference and freedom’. Mimeo, University of California at Riverside and University of DurhamGoogle Scholar
Puppe, Clemens. 1995. ‘Freedom of choice and rational decision’. Social Choice and Welfare, 12:137–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Puppe, Clemens. 1998. ‘Individual freedom and social choice’. In Freedom in Economics: New Perspectives in Normative Analysis. Laslier, Jean-Francois, Fleurbaey, Marc, Gravel, Nicolas and Trannoy, Alain (eds.), RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Rawls, John. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Harvard University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, John. 1982. ‘Social Unity and Primary Goods’. In Utilitarianism and Beyond, pp. 159–86. Sen, Amartya and Williams, Bernard (eds.). Cambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scanlon, Thomas M. 1991. ‘The Moral Basis of Interpersonal Comparisons’. In Interpersonal Comparisons of Well-Being, pp. 1744. Elster, Jon and Roemer, John E.. Cambridge University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, Amartya. 1970. ‘The impossibility of a Paretian liberal’. Journal of Political Economy, 78:152–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, Amartya. 1991. ‘Welfare, preference and freedom’. Journal of Econometrics, 50:1529CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, Amartya. 1992. Inequality Reexamined. Harvard University PressGoogle Scholar
Suppes, Patrick. 1987. ‘Maximizing Freedom of Decision: An Axiomatic Analysis’. In Arrow and the Foundations of the Theory of Economic Policy. Feiwel, G. R. (ed.). MacmillanGoogle Scholar
Van Parijs, Philippe. 1995. Real Freedom for All: What (if Anything) is Wrong with Capitalism? Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar