Adaptive aspirations and cognitive individual well‐being: some implications Available to Purchase

Differentiates economic welfare from general welfare and demonstrates mathematically the welfare‐indeterminacy of economic growth. Goes on to show that the Pareto criterion also fails to identify changes in social welfare, proposes a new “social Pareto criterion” and considers its implications for income redistribution policies. Argues that the related theoretical problems result from the assumption of an asymmetrical value function and puts forward an alternative idea (an asymmetric but rotating value function) to resolve this and properly measure the welfare effects of income redistribution.