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  1. Home
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  3. Prioritarianism in Practice
  • Cited by 14
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2022
Print publication year:
2022
Online ISBN:
9781108691734
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108691734
Subjects:
Economics, Macroeconomics, Ethics, Philosophy
Information

Book description

Prioritarianism is an ethical theory that gives extra weight to the well-being of the worse off. In contrast, dominant policy-evaluation methodologies, such as benefit-cost analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, and utilitarianism, ignore or downplay issues of fair distribution. Based on a research group founded by the editors, this important book is the first to show how prioritarianism can be used to assess governmental policies and evaluate societal conditions. This book uses prioritarianism as a methodology to evaluate governmental policy across a variety of policy domains: taxation, health policy, risk regulation, education, climate policy, and the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also the first to demonstrate how prioritarianism improves on GDP as an indicator of a society's progress over time. Edited by two senior figures in the field with contributions from some of the world's leading economists, this volume bridges the gap from the theory of prioritarianism to its practical application.

Reviews

‘Prioritarianism is, broadly speaking, the ethical principle of decision-making in which we give extra weight to the needs of the most deprived. What makes Prioritarianism in Practice a valuable book is that it is a stocktaking of the philosophy and economics of prioritarianism and includes a series of chapters that show how these ideas can help us navigate the challenges we currently face - from health economics and policy, and climate change and interventions to combat inequality of opportunity, through the nature of education needed in this new world, to an excellent, topical chapter on Prioriarianism and the COVID-19 Pandemic. The book serves as a single source for the philosophy of prioritarianism and its real-world applications.’

Kaushik Basu - Cornell University

‘The book serves as a single source for the philosophy of prioritarianism and its real-world applications. The first two chapters, by Matthew Adler and Ole Norheim and by Matthew Adler, respectively, constitute a masterly survey of this important subject. … The engaging chapters on education and prioritarianism and health policy and prioritarianism, for instance, will be of great interest to economic theorists and welfare economists, but they will also be of interest to the policymaker.’

Kaushik Basu Source: Journal of Economic Literature

‘… a good reference book, particularly indicated to post-graduate students and all scholars interested in the conception of policies.'

Stefano Solari Source: History of Economic Thought and Policy

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