Social Choice Theory: Cost-Benefit Analysis and Beyond

Catalog description

Social choice theory is the body of scholarship—beginning with Kenneth Arrow's famous 'impossibility theorem'—that systematically investigates the relation between individuals' preferences (or more generally, individual well-being) and societal decisions. This literature has much relevance to law, since it provides a foundation for understanding cost-benefit analysis and other policy analysis methodologies. I intend to offer a non-technical introduction to social choice theory, and one that will draw upon relevant philosophical literatures—in particular, philosophical scholarship concerning well-being and inequality.