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The reasoning of a great methodologist: Mark Blaug on the nature of Paretian welfare economics

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Summary

In various publications Blaug has upheld the view that Paretian welfare economics is normative, sharply criticising the opposite ‘Archibald-Hennipman argument.’ He has failed to refute this and to defend his position, with the allegation that positive welfare economics cannot exist, convincingly. His reasoning is marred by misunderstandings, inconsistencies, circularities and traces of essentialism. The normative conception is an ambiguous hybrid that cannot fulfil the pretension to offer definite prescriptions. It is advisable to regard allocation theory as belonging to positive economics; its normative application must drop its claim to represent welfare economics as a whole.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam

    P. Hennipman (Emeritus Professor of Economics)

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  1. P. Hennipman
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The author is deeply indebted to Elisabeth Eybers for linguistic and to Kitti Manning for technical assistance. He is grateful to ABN-AMRO for making publication of this article financially possible.

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Hennipman, P. The reasoning of a great methodologist: Mark Blaug on the nature of Paretian welfare economics. De Economist 140, 413–445 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01725238

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