Abstract
Economists normally hold that the only relevant costs and benefits are those that accrue to individuals, and which are a function of the preferences of individuals, which leads to the problem of reckoning these preferences. Preferences are logical constructs and must conform with certain logical rules (including transitivity and a number of others) if they are to be consistently stated.1 They imply a reasoning mind, but what if an individual is capricious or unreasoning and lacks consistent preferences? The short answer of course is that one can only give a man his preferences to the extent that he has any, and the analyst must do his best with the data available.
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Notes and References
A. Downs, Inside Bureaucracy (Boston, 1967).
J. M. Buchanan and G. Tullock, The Calculus of Consent (University of Michigan, 1962) pp. 4, 18,27–30.
B. M. Barry, Sociologists, Economists, and Democracy (London, 1970), chapter 2.
Too familiar to repeat here. See for example: A. K. Sen, Behaviour and the Concept of Preference (London School of Economics, 1973) pp. 10–13.
A. K. Sen, On Economic Inequality (Oxford, 1973) pp. 96–9.
J. Rawls. A Theory of Justice (Oxford University Press, 1972) pp. 22–7, 183–92.
C. D. Foster, ‘Social Welfare Functions in C.B.A.’, in Operational Research in the Social Services, ed. M. Laurence (London, 1966).
I. D. M. Little, A Critique of Welfare Economics (Oxford University Press, 1950) chapter 10.
Ebenezer Howard, Garden Cities of Tomorrow (London, new ed. 1946).
D. L. Foley, Controlling London’s Growth (University of California Press, 1963).
J. N. Jackson, The Urban Future (London, 1972) chapter 8.
Peter Self, Metropolitan Planning (London School of Economics, 1971) chapter 6.
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© 1975 Peter Self
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Self, P. (1975). Techniques and Values. In: Econocrats and the Policy Process. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-86169-9_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-86169-9_6
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