What is the general Welfare? Welfare Economic Perspectives

Researchers do not know what the framers of the United States Constitution intended when they wrote of the general Welfare. Nevertheless, economists can conjecture by specifying social welfare functions that aim to express the preferences of the population. Economists have often simplified utilitarian analysis of public policy by assuming that individuals have homogeneous, consequentialist, and self-centered preferences. In reality, individuals may hold heterogeneous private and social preferences. To enhance policy analysis, I argue that economists should specify social welfare functions that express the richness and variety of actual personal preferences over social states. The possibilities are vast. I focus on preferences for population prosperity and equity. There has been much controversy regarding interpretation of equity, a term that public discourse has used in vague and conflicting ways. Specifying social welfare functions that formally express different interpretations of equity may not eliminate disagreements, but it should clarify concepts of equity and reduce the inconsistencies that afflict verbal communication.