Some time ago, on my visit to the Manchester Statistical Society, somebody told me about the book [amazon_link id=”B0019TAFRE” target=”_blank” ]A Critique of Welfare Economics[/amazon_link] by I.M.D.Little, which was – as I confessed – previously unknown to me. Yesterday Andrew Sentance kindly lent me his battered old copy of the 2nd edition, which he’d apparently dug out of a box in the shed at the bottom of his garden. First published in 1950, Andrew’s copy is a 1973 reissue (£1.75 cover price, or just under £18 in today’s prices), and it was reissued most recently in [amazon_link id=”0198281196″ target=”_blank” ]2002[/amazon_link] (£63 for a hardback edition).

[amazon_image id=”0198281196″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]A Critique of Welfare Economics[/amazon_image]

Paging through, that the book starts by taking on utilitarianism as adopted and adapted by Pigou and Marshall. What would Prof Little have made of our modern day Jeremy Bentham, Professor Richard Layard? The first chapter particularly criticizes in this version of welfare economics, “The whole Benthamite doctrine that the welfare of society was the sum total of the welfares of individuals and that the welfare of an individual was the sum total of the satisfactions he experienced….. An essential feature of the Pigovian type of welfare economics is the assumption that each individual tries to maximise his own satisfaction.” This fitted very neatly with the consumer choice theory developed by Marshall and taught to generations of bemused undergraduates. A quick scan suggests the book particularly takes issue with the way economics tries to avoid making value judgements, and instead insisting on the positive rather than the normative.

I’ll look forward to reading the rest at some stage. One of the blurbs on the back says: “The great value of Mr Little’s brilliant work is that economists will be much more careful in future how they choose their words.” Hmmmm.

If only he had a grave to turn in….