Pareto Optimality in Policy Espousal

The concepts of Pareto optimality and Pareto- optimal change continue appearing in academic discussions as supposed criteria of policy and keys to a positive science of political economy. Much has been said against this idea, but the criticisms have been partial and scattered. The present paper seeks to systematize and extend them. (It incidentally stresses, in section IX, what the Pareto concepts are good for.) It risks the charge of being old-fashioned by openly espousing a basis for policy recommendations that the Pareto-optimizers themselves have been creeping back to, albeit unwittingly or under camouflage.

Volume 2, Number 3 (1978)