24,293 research outputs found

    The News of the Death of Welfare Economics is Greatly Exaggerated

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    AprĂšs qu'Arrow eut dĂ©montrĂ© son thĂ©orĂšme d'impossibilitĂ©, les "fonctions de bien-ĂȘtre social de Bergson-Samuelson" (FBS) firent l'objet d'une controverse qui opposa les thĂ©oriciens du choix social aux Ă©conomistes du bien-ĂȘtre. Une version nouvelle du thĂ©orĂšme parue dans les annĂ©es 1970 visait Ă  Ă©tablir que les FBS "ou bien font des comparaisons d'utilitĂ© interpersonnelle, ou bien sont dictatoriales". Refusant cette conclusion, Samuelson rĂ©affirma l'existence de FBS "ordinalistes" et, cependant, non-dictatoriales; plus gĂ©nĂ©ralement, il nia la pertinence des rĂ©sultats arroviens pour l'Ă©conomie du bien-ĂȘtre. L'article formalise et rĂ©Ă©value les arguments avancĂ©s de chaque cĂŽtĂ©. Bien qu'il critique Ă©galement ceux de Samuelson, il approuve sa conclusion, voulant que l'Ă©conomie du bien-ĂȘtre soit sortie indemne de la controverse. L'article propose de rapprocher les FBS de certaines constructions de l'Ă©conomie normative contemporaine.Economie du bien-ĂȘtre;ThĂ©orie du choix social;Fonction de bien-ĂȘtre social de Bergson-Samuelson;Fonctionnelle de bien-ĂȘtre social;Arrow;Bergson;Samuelson

    The News of the Death of Welfare Economics is Greatly Exaggerated

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    The paper reexamines the controversy about Bergson-Samuelson social welfare functions (BSF) that took place between welfare economists and social choice theorists as a consequence of Arrow's impossibility theorem. The 1970's witnessed a new version of the theorem that was meant to establish that BSF "make interpersonal comparisons of utility or are dictatorial''. Against this, Samuelson reasserted the existence of well-behaved "ordinalist'' BSF and generally denied the relevance of Arrovian impossibilities to welfare economics. The paper formalizes and reassesses each camp's arguments. While being also critical of Samuelson's, it eventually endorses his conclusion that welfare economics was left untouched by the controversy. It draws some connections of BSF with contemporary normative economics.AprĂšs qu'Arrow eut dĂ©montrĂ© son thĂ©orĂšme d'impossibilitĂ©, les "fonctions de bien-ĂȘtre social de Bergson-Samuelson" (FBS) firent l'objet d'une controverse qui opposa les thĂ©oriciens du choix social aux Ă©conomistes du bien-ĂȘtre. Une version nouvelle du thĂ©orĂšme parue dans les annĂ©es 1970 visait Ă  Ă©tablir que les FBS "ou bien font des comparaisons d'utilitĂ© interpersonnelle, ou bien sont dictatoriales". Refusant cette conclusion, Samuelson rĂ©affirma l'existence de FBS "ordinalistes" et, cependant, non-dictatoriales; plus gĂ©nĂ©ralement, il nia la pertinence des rĂ©sultats arroviens pour l'Ă©conomie du bien-ĂȘtre. L'article formalise et rĂ©Ă©value les arguments avancĂ©s de chaque cĂŽtĂ©. Bien qu'il critique Ă©galement ceux de Samuelson, il approuve sa conclusion, voulant que l'Ă©conomie du bien-ĂȘtre soit sortie indemne de la controverse. L'article propose de rapprocher les FBS de certaines constructions de l'Ă©conomie normative contemporaine

    Libertarianism: an Extremely Short Introduction

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    (Revised 31-10-17) This is only one view on the topic; other views may be rather different. It starts at the more philosophical end and then becomes more empirical, and possibly easier to understand, as it proceeds

    Designing a Compensated–Kidney Donation System

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    Osteochondral lesions of the talus (OLTs) are the third most common type of osteochondral lesion and can cause pain and instability of the ankle joint. Episurf Medical AB is a medical technology company that develops individualized implants for patients who are suffering from focal cartilage lesions. Episurf have recently started a project that aims to implement their implantation technique in the treatment of OLTs. This master thesis was a part of Episurf’s talus project and the main goal of the thesis was to find the optimal implantation angle of the Episurf implant when treating OLTs. The optimal implantation angle was defined as the angle that minimized the maximum equivalent (von Mises) strain acting on the implant shaft during the stance phase of a normal gait cycle. It is desirable to minimize the strain acting on the implant shaft, since a reduction of the strain can improve the longevity of the implant. To find the optimal implantation angle a finite element model of an ankle joint treated with the Episurf implant was developed. In the model an implant with a diameter of 12 millimeters was placed in the middle part of the medial side of the talar dome. An optimization algorithm was designed to find the implantation angle, which minimized the maximum equivalent strain acting on the implant shaft. The optimal implantation angle was found to be a sagittal angle of 12.5 degrees and a coronal angle of 0 degrees. Both the magnitude and the direction of the force applied to the ankle joint in the simulated stance phase seemed to influence the maximum equivalent strain acting on the implant shaft. A number of simplifications have been done in the simulation of this project, which might affect the accuracy of the results. Therefore it is recommended that further, more detailed, simulations based on this project are performed in order to improve the result accuracy.Fokala broskskador pĂ„ talusbenet Ă€r den tredje vanligaste typen av fokala broskskador och kan ge upphov till smĂ€rta och instabilitet av fotleden. Episurf Medical AB Ă€r ett medicintekniskt företag som utvecklar individanpassade implantat för patienter med fokala broskskador. Episurf har nyligen pĂ„börjat ett projekt dĂ€r deras teknik ska anvĂ€ndas i behandlingen av fokala broskskador pĂ„ talusbenet. Den hĂ€r masteruppsatsen var en del i Episurfs talusprojekt och dess huvudmĂ„l var att finna den optimala implantationsvinkeln av Episurfs implantat i behandlingen av fokala broskskador pĂ„ talusbenet. Den optimala implanteringsvinkeln definierades som den vinkel som minimerade den effektiva von Mises-töjningen som verkade pĂ„ implantatskaftet under stance-fasen i en normal gĂ„ngcykel. Det Ă€r efterstrĂ€vansvĂ€rt att minimera belastningen pĂ„ implantatskaftet eftersom en reducering av belastningen kan förbĂ€ttra implantatets livslĂ€ngd. En finita element-modell av en fotled behandlad med Episurfs implantat utvecklades för att för att finna den optimala implantationsvinkeln. I modellen placerades ett implantat med en diameter pĂ„ 12 millimeter pĂ„ mittendelen av talus mediala sida. En optimeringsalgoritm utformades för att finna implantationsvinkeln som minimerade den effektiva von Mises-töjningen pĂ„ implantatskaftet. Den funna optimala implantationsvinkeln bestod av en vinkel pĂ„ 12.5 grader i sagittalplan och en vinkel pĂ„ 0 grader i koronalplan. BĂ„de storleken och riktningen pĂ„ kraften som applicerats pĂ„ fotleden under den simulerade stance-fasen av gĂ„ngcykeln verkade pĂ„verka belastningen pĂ„ implantatskaftet. Ett antal förenklingar har gjorts i projektets simuleringar, vilket kan pĂ„verka noggrannheten i resultatet. DĂ€rför rekommenderas att ytterligare, mer detaljerade simuleringar baserade pĂ„ det hĂ€r projektet görs för att förbĂ€ttra resultatets noggrannhet

    The Economics of Safety

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    Economic Advice and Political Decisions: A Clash of Civilizations?

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    George Stigler, the Nobel prize winner in economics in 1982, once wrote that economists exert a minor and scarcely detectable influence on the societies in which they live. It’s not a proposition that Don Patinkin, who trained several generations of “Patinkin boys” and had quite an influence on practical economics in Israel, would likely have felt comfortable with. And many people in this room, I suspect, would take Patinkin’s side in this virtual debate between these two giants of our profession. Today, I want to examine the virtual debate between Patinkin and Stigler from two rather different perspectives.

    Geography and the Internet: Is the Internet a Substitute or a Complement for Cities?

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    We study the tendency to connect to the Internet, and the online and offline shopping behavior of connected persons, to draw inferences about whether the Internet is a substitute or a complement for cities. We document that larger markets have more locally-targeted online content and that individuals are more likely to connect in markets with more local online content, suggesting the Internet is a complement to cities. Yet, holding local online content constant, people are less likely to connect in larger markets, indicating that the Internet is also a substitute for cities. We also find that individuals connect to overcome local isolation: notwithstanding a large digital divide, blacks are more likely to connect, relative to whites, when they comprise a smaller fraction of local population, making the Internet a substitute for agglomeration of preference minorities within cities. Finally, using online and offline spending data, we find that connected persons spend more on books and clothing online, relative to their offline spending, if they are farther from offline stores. This indicates that the Internet functions as a substitute for proximity to retail outlets.

    Arrow's Impossibility Theorem: Preference Diversity in a Single-Profile World

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    In this paper we provide two simple new versions of Arrow’s impossibility theorem, in a model with only one preference profile. Both versions are transparent, requiring minimal mathematical sophistication. The first version assumes there are only two people in society, whose preferences are being aggregated; the second version assumes two or more people. Both theorems rely on assumptions about diversity of preferences, and we explore alternative notions of diversity at some length. Our first theorem also uses a neutrality assumption, commonly used in the literature; our second theorem uses a neutrality/monotonicity assumption, which is stronger and less commonly used. We provide examples to illustrate our points.Arrow's Theorem; single-profile
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