Recent work in behavioural economics has questioned traditional measures for welfare. This book asks whether a different measure for individual welfare can, and should, be found. This book explores whether a hedonistic view of welfare represents a viable alternative, and what its normative implications are. Binder follows a naturalistic methodology to examine the foundations of welfare, connecting the concept with a dynamic theory of preference learning, and providing a more realistic account of human behaviour.
1.Introduction, 2. Conceptual Background and Welfare Terminology, 3. Other Approaches to Welfare Economics, 4. A Positive Basis: The Learning Theory of Consumption, 5. An Evolutionary Theory of Welfare, 6. Evolutionary Welfare Economics, 7. Concluding Remarks, Bibliography
Martin Binder is a Research Associate at the Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena, Germany.
Reviews for Elements of an Evolutionary Theory of Welfare: Assessing Welfare When Preferences Change
"""If the assumption is no longer that our preferences and wants are fixed but that they change over time, how should we think of economic welfare? In a much needed book, Martin Binder puts a novel discussion of these crucial issues on a firm behavioural and evolutionary footing."" - Jack Vromen, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands"