IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/sochwe/v60y2023i4d10.1007_s00355-022-01433-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On Sugden’s normative economics and the comparison of non-nested opportunity sets

Author

Listed:
  • Bertrand Crettez

    (Panthéon-Assas University, CRED, EA, 7321)

Abstract

In his book The Community of Advantage, Sugden proposes a form of normative economics that is almost free of the concept of preferences. Specifically, Sugden relies on the idea that everyone can accept the principle that more opportunities is better than less. Yet, this approach cannot be easily applied to the choice of economic reforms that fail to provide more opportunities for everyone. This paper complements an approach proposed by Sugden to deal with non-nested opportunity sets. We rely on the idea that people should take responsibility for the choices that were not endorsed before the reform takes place. In this perspective, a reform project is admissible if it allows people to stick to their initial choices and provides them with a rich set of opportunities (that is, the new opportunity regime must also satisfy Sugden’s Strong Interactive Opportunity Criterion). As an illustration, we show how routine redistribution schemes can make free trade be preferred to autarky even if it does not provide more opportunities for everyone.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertrand Crettez, 2023. "On Sugden’s normative economics and the comparison of non-nested opportunity sets," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 60(4), pages 545-559, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sochwe:v:60:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s00355-022-01433-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s00355-022-01433-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00355-022-01433-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00355-022-01433-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Sugden, 2017. "Characterising competitive equilibrium in terms of opportunity," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 48(3), pages 487-503, March.
    2. Robert Sugden, 2021. "A response to six comments on The Community of Advantage," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 419-430, October.
    3. Robert Sugden, 2004. "The Opportunity Criterion: Consumer Sovereignty Without the Assumption of Coherent Preferences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 1014-1033, September.
    4. Geoffrey Brennan & Hartmut Kliemt, 2021. "Sugden’s community of advantage," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 374-384, October.
    5. Malte F. Dold & Mario J. Rizzo, 2021. "The limits of opportunity-only: context-dependence and agency in behavioral welfare economics," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 364-373, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mozaffar Qizilbash, 2019. "The market, utilitarianism and the corruption argument," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 66(1), pages 37-55, March.
    2. Garth Heutel, 2024. "Behavioral economics and the evidential defense of welfare economics," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 23(4), pages 368-384, November.
    3. Oliver, Adam, 2024. "On choice inconsistency: the ‘error’ error in behavioural paternalism," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 125845, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Markus Haavio & Kaisa Kotakorpi, 2012. "Sin Licenses Revisited," CESifo Working Paper Series 4010, CESifo.
    5. Schnellenbach, Jan & Schubert, Christian, 2015. "Behavioral political economy: A survey," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 395-417.
    6. Vanberg Viktor J., 2014. "Evolving Preferences and Welfare Economics: The Perspective of Constitutional Political Economy," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 234(2-3), pages 328-349, April.
    7. Yuri Biondi, 2009. "Capital budgeting under relational contracting: optimal ranking and duration criteria for schemes of concession, project-financing and public-private partnership," Post-Print hal-00404305, HAL.
    8. Malte Dold, 2023. "Behavioural normative economics: foundations, approaches and trends," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(2), pages 137-150, June.
    9. Christoph March & Ina Schieferdecker, 2021. "Technological Sovereignty as Ability, Not Autarky," CESifo Working Paper Series 9139, CESifo.
    10. Robert Sugden, 2011. "The behavioural economist and the social planner: to whom should behavioural welfare economics be addressed?," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2011-21, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    11. Alexia Gaudeul & Robert Sugden, 2012. "Spurious Complexity and Common Standards in Markets for Consumer Goods," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 79(314), pages 209-225, April.
    12. Berg, Nathan & Biele, Guido & Gigerenzer, Gerd, 2010. "Does consistency predict accuracy of beliefs?: Economists surveyed about PSA," MPRA Paper 26590, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Ben McQuillin & Robert Sugden, 2012. "Reconciling normative and behavioural economics: the problems to be solved," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 38(4), pages 553-567, April.
    14. Jacobs Martin, 2016. "Accounting for Changing Tastes: Approaches to Explaining Unstable Individual Preferences," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 67(2), pages 121-183, August.
    15. Roberto Fumagalli, 2016. "Decision sciences and the new case for paternalism: three welfare-related justificatory challenges," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 47(2), pages 459-480, August.
    16. Gerardo Infante & Guilhem Lecouteux & Robert Sugden, 2016. "Preference purification and the inner rational agent: a critique of the conventional wisdom of behavioural welfare economics," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 1-25, March.
    17. Fatas, Enrique & Hargreaves Heap, Shaun P. & Rojo Arjona, David, 2018. "Preference conformism: An experiment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 71-82.
    18. Khalil, Elias, 2007. "Emotions and International Conflicts: Sociological, Evolutionary and Rational Views," MPRA Paper 2279, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Robert Sugden, 2012. "The market as a cooperative endeavour," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 365-370, September.
    20. Dalila Rosa & Tommaso Reggiani & Paolo Santori, 2021. "Special Issue: “The Community of Advantage”," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 68(1), pages 1-4, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:sochwe:v:60:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s00355-022-01433-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.