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Economics, Ethics, and the Limits to Efficiency Theory
Ekardt, Felix Wilke, Martin
Ekardt, Felix
Wilke, Martin
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Abstract
This paper develops a substantial critique of the normative background assumptions that are not only the formulation of fundamental economic theories but are also, in part, those which sociological/ political theories are based on. However, this does not lead up to any “supplement to efficiency considerations” which up till now has dominated economics; it rather supersedes them. It will be demonstrated that the supposed rationality behind the cost-benefit analysis used by economists – in correspondence to neo-classical economic theory – in order to calculate, mathematically for instance, the ideal climate policy is based on wrong normative assumptions. The idea behind terminologies like “ethics” and “theories of justice” that most social scientists have adopted will be corrected in the process of this review. Furthermore, these ideas are neither “vague”, nor do they solely correspond to the will of “majorities”, “governments”, or “cultures”. In the end, preference theories have to be qualified as (less convincing) ethics themselves.
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2010-09
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With permission of the license/copyright holder