Abstract: Welfare economics has evolved during the twentieth century and came, some say, to a fateful dead end, preventing any rigorous contribution to policy recommendations. They are of the view that no meaningful propositions can be made in welfare economics without introducing value judgments. The concept of social welfare is an attempt at providing a scientifically normative study of welfare economics. This trend is standardly explained by the controversy over the possibility and the relevance of interpersonal comparisons of utility. This analysis does not provide any hope to go beyond the bad news. Moreover, it fails to explain the possibility of a new welfare economics without comparisons. Against the interpersonal comparisons reading, I claim a reasonable assumption is that under the discussion on comparisons, lies a fundamental evolution in the properties of utility. This paper presents a historical overview of the evolution of welfare economics through the XXth century, and derives a challenging explanation, the “utility reading”. It shows the evolution of welfare economics is related to the characteristics of utility, notably its operational ability and its normative content. The paper concludes that the revival of welfare economics needs a specific notion of welfare, distinct from the utility concept used in microeconomics.
Keywords: Welfare economics, utility, Bergson, Criterion, function.
Title: A REVIEW OF BERGSON CRITERION AS A MEASURE OF SOCIAL WELFARE
Author: Idisi, P.O., Ogwu I.J., Idi J. O.
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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