EVENTS | Symposia

Human Rights and/or Welfare Economics

March 18-19, 2003

The aim of this symposium was to spark debate and discussion about the possible conjunctions and disjunctions between human rights and welfare economics. Does welfare economics offer a methodology that is large and flexible enough to incorporate any concerns registered by notions of human rights? Or do human rights ideas call for adjustment of or constraints against the conceptions of utility or welfare maximization at work in welfare economics? Do the historical origins and purposes of welfare economics and human rights explain differences in their units of analysis, rhetoric, or measures for success? How can young scholars learn from and use the insights represented by both traditions? Are there emerging ideas about human values and desires, institutional arrangements or culture that invite recasting both welfare economics and human rights so that the disciplinary tools of each can better address issues around the globe and in particular regions? These are the kinds of questions that prompted the event. Our faculty committee, graduate student fellows, and other members of the Harvard community are keenly interested in these and related issues.

March 18

5:00-7:30 Austin West, Harvard Law School

Opening panel: Human Rights and/or Welfare Economics

Kenneth Arrow
"Welfare Economics and Childhood"

John Ferejohn
"Deliberation, Welfare and Rights"

Amartya Sen, facilitator

March 19

9:00-12:00 Austin North, Harvard Law School

Closing Panel: Human Rights and/or Welfare Economics

Barbara Fried (co-author Mark Kelman)
"The Pragmatic Consequences of Foundational Principles"

Kotaro Suzumura
"Welfare, Rights, and Procedural Justice in Normative Economics"

Benjamin Friedman, facilitator