1st Edition
Wellbeing, Nature, and Moral Values in Economics How Modern Economic Analysis Faces the Challenges Ahead
Drawing on more modern expressions of economic analysis, this book explores the interplay between wellbeing, nature and moral values in economics.
In standard accounts of economics, these three themes are typically treated in isolation from each other, or else overlooked entirely. This book argues that due to this blinkered approach, standard economic analysis is poorly equipped to deal with global contemporary challenges including climate change, biodiversity loss, sustainability, and the risk of pandemic diseases. The book reviews the economic literature to show that the last few decades has seen the re-insertion into economic analysis of human wellbeing, natural resources and moral values: three themes present in early economic thought that are highly relevant to the challenges ahead. The book argues for the greater integration of these three themes as the natural environment is crucial to human wellbeing, and moral values are essential for environmentally benign behaviors. The book also focuses on how specific moral values, identified by contemporary moral psychology, actually shape economic behavior rather than how abstract ethical principles they should shape economic behavior.
The book will be of significant interest to readers in the economics and social sciences, particularly behavioral economics and social psychology.
List of tables
- Introduction: Economics and the Challenges Ahead
- Measuring Welfare
- Economic Determinants of Wellbeing
- Wellbeing and the Environment
- Ethics and Economics
- The Cooperation Dilemma and Deontological Behavior
- Morality in Modern Economics
- Prospects and Future Directions
Some Challenges Ahead
The Challenges Ahead as Public Good Problems and the Role of Moral Values
Nature, Wellbeing and, Moral Values in Economics: Past and Present
Aims and Scope of the Book
Overview of the Subsequent Chapters
Bibliography
Part I. Welfare, Wellbeing, and the Environment
Introduction
New Measures of Welfare
Subjective Wellbeing and Economics
Subjective Wellbeing as a Welfare Measure
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
Microeconomic Factors of Wellbeing
Macroeconomic Factors of Wellbeing
Inequality
Implications for Public Policy
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
Air Pollution
Climate Change
Environmental Amenities and Land Use
Pro-Environmental Behavior
Conclusion
Bibliography
Part II. Economics, Morality, and the Challenges Ahead
Introduction
Consequentialism and Deontology
Normative Accounts of Ethics in Economics
Ethics and Natural Resource Utilization
Ethics and Climate Change
Ethical Behavior and Fairness Preferences: Some Evidence
Conclusion
Bibliography
Introduction
Social Dilemmas
Global Public Goods
International Climate Policy as a Cooperation Dilemma
Voluntary Public Good Provision and Deontological Behavior
Conclusion
Appendix
Bibliography
Introduction
Approaches to Morality
Social Norms and Pro-Environmental Behavior
Moral Norms and Pro-Environmental Behavior
Identity, Cognitions, and Climate Change Mitigation
Conclusion
Bibliography
Pressing Economic Problems: What Economists Say
Economics and the Challenges Ahead
Economics and the Role of Feelings
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Heinz Welsch is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Oldenburg, Germany. He formerly held positions at the universities of Cologne and Bonn. His fields of research include environmental, resource, and energy economics; economics of subjective wellbeing; and the role of norms and values for economic behavior. He has published extensively on these topics. His publications on "environment and happiness" were among the first contributions to this field.
