Utility and Justice: French Liberal Economists in the 19th Century.

French liberal economists share a very surprising reading of Bentham's theory. In this paper, we underline the method according to which these French liberal economists in the nineteenth century economists understand Bentham's utilitarianism: they consider that utilitarianism deals with 'utility' but disregards justice. Such an interpretation appears when they tried to oppose the 'French school' and 'English school' of economics as well as when they discussed the foundation of property rights.French liberal economists ; utilitarianism ; justice ; property rights ; utility

Individual Utility in a Context of Asymetric Sensitivity to Pleasure and Pain: An Interpretation of Bentham's Felicific Calculus

This paper aims at exploring, in a formal way, Bentham's statement that “the pleasure of gaining is not equal to the evil of losing”, which belongs to those aspects of the principle of utility left aside by Jevon's reconstruction. Consequently, the agent's preference order will be viewed as depending on his initial situation, and on asymmetric sensitivity to gains and losses, relative to this situation. This leads i) to discuss the coexistence of multiple preference orders, illustrated by Bentham's analysis of the optimal labour contract, and ii) to introduce true deliberation as a consequence of the gap between positive choice and rival assessments of utility.Bentham; endogeneous preferences; individual utility; pain and pleasure; preference reversal; utilitarianism; préférences endogènes; utilité individuelle; peine et plaisir; inversion de préférences; utilitarisme

John Stuart Mill and the Employment of Married Women: Reconciling Utility and Justice

This paper explores the link between utilitarianism and feminism through the positions of John Stuart Mill. We try to reconcile Mill's conviction about the necessity of establishing equality between sexes with his position concerning the employment of married women. This reconciliation has already been attempted by other researchers. Our perspective is slightly different in that we seek to establish a globally coherent position by examining Mill's various writings in order to evaluate his feminism in terms of his utilitarian philosophy.John Stuart Mill ; Utilitarisme ; Feminisme ;

La réception de l'œuvre économique de Cournot

Lorsque les "Recherches sur les principes mathématiques de la Théorie des richesses" de Cournot paraissent en 1838, elles ne suscitent guère d'intérêt, si ce n'est en Allemagne où elles font l'objet d'une traduction. A l'inverse, Cournot tient aujourd'hui une place importante en économie, suscitant des recherches qui ne se limitent pas au seul domaine de l'histoire de la pensée économique : il fait partie, avec Quesnay et Walras, des économistes français les plus souvent cités et est considéré comme l'un des plus grands économistes de tous les temps. L'objet de ce chapitre est d'étudier la manière dont cette perception des travaux économiques de Cournot a évolué, depuis le XIXe siècle jusqu'à aujourd'hui, en identifiant les principaux éléments qui l'ont déterminée : ceux-ci sont d'ordre méthodologique (I), idéologique (II) et analytique (III)

"Compte rendu de Jeremy Bentham, Rights, representation and reform. Nonsense upon stilts and other writings on the French Revolution (ed. par Ph. Schofield, C. Pease-Watkin et C. Blamires), Oxford : Clarendon Press, 2002"

Compte-rendu de l'ouvrage paru chez Oxford, édité par Ph. Schofield, C. Pease-Watkin et C. Blamires, "Jeremy Bentham, Rights, representation and reform. Nonsense upon stilts and other writings on the French Revolution

Using Conjunctural Indices in Prediction Models for Gas Sales---A Case Study

This thesis evaluates whether it is possible to use conjunctural indices from Statistics Sweden (Statistiska Centralbyrån) in order to improve the sales predictions at a Swedish gas company. For this purpose sales data for three of the main gases are gathered from the year 1995 and forth. In the first step, this data is used to create ARX and State Space models. Sales predictions are made from these models and the quality of these predictions is measured. In the second step, the conjunctural indices from Statistics Sweden for the corresponding period is used as input values and new ARX and State Space models are created. Predictions are made also with these models and are then compared to the predictions without help from the conjunctural indices. The results are however not significantly better. Correlation analysis show strong correlation between the conjunctural indices and the sales for some intervals in the available sales period, but no thoroughgoing correlation and no strong correlation at the current time (year 2008-2010). The conclusion is thus that the available conjunctural indices cannot be used to improve the sales predictions. However, since the correlations have been strong during come periods, it could be worth monitoring the correlations in case they reappea

TV advertisement and social networks: an empirical study with young adults

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and EconomicsThe aim of this research is to investigate the possible synergies between TV commercials and a brand Facebook profile. Different executional cues were tested to determine which one could create the greatest awareness of a brand profile and if, by choosing one cue over another, the intention to visit a brand profile could be influenced too. The experiment involved 400 young adults who were invited to watch a video online and, subsequently, to complete a survey. Results suggest that while the different cues were able to create different level of awareness, no effect could be observed on the intention to visit the brand profile

"Be Quiet" mais modérement : le rôle de l'Etat dans la pensée économique de Jeremy Bentham

Cet article a pour objet de montrer que la tradition associant l'utilitarisme de Bentham au libéralisme économique conduit à négliger la singularité d'une approche dans laquelle la sphère économique ne peut être pensée comme autonome par rapport à la législation. L'accent est placé sur les problèmes d'information qui, s'ils justifient la non-ingérence de la puissance publique au regard des objectifs propres à l'économie - la " subsistance " et l'"abondance " -, conduisent également à des conclusions interventionnistes, chaque fois qu'une insuffisance d'information introduit une incertitude, mettant en danger le " bien de sûreté " et, plus généralement, les objectifs spécifiques de la "législation ".Bentham;Utilitarisme;Libéralisme;Etat

La réception de l'œuvre économique de Cournot

Lorsque les "Recherches sur les principes mathématiques de la Théorie des richesses" de Cournot paraissent en 1838, elles ne suscitent guère d'intérêt, si ce n'est en Allemagne où elles font l'objet d'une traduction. A l'inverse, Cournot tient aujourd'hui une place importante en économie, suscitant des recherches qui ne se limitent pas au seul domaine de l'histoire de la pensée économique : il fait partie, avec Quesnay et Walras, des économistes français les plus souvent cités et est considéré comme l'un des plus grands économistes de tous les temps. L'objet de ce chapitre est d'étudier la manière dont cette perception des travaux économiques de Cournot a évolué, depuis le XIXe siècle jusqu'à aujourd'hui, en identifiant les principaux éléments qui l'ont déterminée : ceux-ci sont d'ordre méthodologique (I), idéologique (II) et analytique (III).Cournot ; Histoire de la pensée économique ; théorie des jeux ; épistémologie ; économétrie ; France ; XIXe siècle.

Individual Utility in a Context of Asymetric Sensitivity to Pleasure and Pain: An Interpretation of Bentham's Felicific Calculus

International audienceThis paper aims at exploring, in a formal way, Bentham's statement that “the pleasure of gaining is not equal to the evil of losing”, which belongs to those aspects of the principle of utility left aside by Jevon's reconstruction. Consequently, the agent's preference order will be viewed as depending on his initial situation, and on asymmetric sensitivity to gains and losses, relative to this situation. This leads i) to discuss the coexistence of multiple preference orders, illustrated by Bentham's analysis of the optimal labour contract, and ii) to introduce true deliberation as a consequence of the gap between positive choice and rival assessments of utility