Notes
1 As Tsakalotos (Citation2005, 896) observes, ‘Abandoning the terrain of values is a position that is value-laden to the core’.
2 Although shown and accepted to be invalid in the 1960s, the aggregate production function remains a staple of mainstream economics, Fine (Citation2013, Chapter 5) for an account.
3 For this, and earlier discussion, in the context of economics and ethics, see Fine (Citation2013), and Milonakis and Fine (Citation2009) and Fine and Milonakis (Citation2009) for fuller accounts.
4 We know that game theory was established to frame Cold War nuclear strategy, and a social welfare function (state as individual) is needed to define objectives.
5 My own work has revolved around rejecting the axiom of irrelevance of independent alternatives (making choice binary without regard to preferences over other choices). The axiom prevents perfectly symmetrical (isomorphic) preferences across individuals and alternatives from guaranteeing total indifference (as should be the case for the voting paradox). Fine and Fine (Citation1974a, Citation1974b) for the liberating consequences!
6 As chance would have, it a day or two after what was supposed to be submission of my final version, the Chair of Scope (a leading charity for those with disabilities), who had previously been a senior civil servant charged with attending to (scandalous) expenses from Members of Parliament, revealed that his disability assessment had been reduced from 11 to 2, despite deteriorating (and terminal) prostate cancer and Parkinson’s. A score of 8 is needed to be eligible for disability benefit. Over 70% of assessments are won when they go to independent appeal! See also Ken Loach’s film, ‘I,Daniel Blake’!
7 A similar point about treating sexual assault as if an economic crime is made by Radin (Citation1996) with, interestingly, a response by Arrow (Citation1997).
8 My own work has shown how incomplete orderings might reflect too little choice (due to limited perception of differences) and too much choice (in case conflicting multiple criteria are treated as indifference); see Fine (Citation1995) as a delayed dalliance out of doctoral thesis, although arising out of empirical application of social choice theory to preferences over acquisition of consumer durables, Fine and Simister (Citation1995) – do we vote for dishwashers or not as a social choice (aka consumption norm)!
9 See Fine (Citation1997) for a discussion of tensions with the entitlement approach to famine along the lines discussed here.
10 See the classic, and relatively early, Sen (Citation1977) for similar thrust, although it remains primarily side-lined by mainstream economics other than for opportunistic purposes of bringing back in this, that or the other.