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A CONCEPT OF PROGRESS FOR NORMATIVE ECONOMICS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2006

PHILIPPE MONGIN
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d'économétrie, C.N.R.S. & Ecole Polytechnique, Paris

Abstract

The paper discusses the sense in which the changes undergone by normative economics in the twentieth century can be said to be progressive. A simple criterion is proposed to decide whether a sequence of normative theories is progressive. This criterion is put to use on the historical transition from the new welfare economics to social choice theory. The paper reconstructs this classic case, and eventually concludes that the latter theory was progressive compared with the former. It also briefly comments on the recent developments in normative economics and their connection with the previous two stages.

Type
Essay
Copyright
2006 Cambridge University Press

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