Normative or positive: Mishan's half-way house

Summary

This rejoinder to Mishan's preceding article corrects his erroneous interpretation of neutral welfare economics. The normative conception, a confusing amalgam of economics and ethics, is criticised on various grounds. Mishan's proposal that normative welfare criteria are legitimate if they accord with a consensus in the community, though an improvement on the usual normative doctrine, does not remove its basic defects, while its practicability is highly dubious. Owing to his recognition that a consensus may quite possibly be lacking, his position is a half-way house between normative and positive.