In Fairness versus Welfare, we advance the thesis that social policies should be assessed based entirely on their effects on individuals’ well-being. This thesis implies that no independent weight should be accorded to notions of fairness (other than many purely distributive notions). We support our thesis in three ways: by demonstrating how notions of fairness perversely reduce welfare, indeed...

While there has been a considerable amount of analysis on the impact of structural adjustment policies on poverty and inequality among individuals (or what we define here as vertical inequality VI), there has been almost none into the impact of structural adjustment on inequality between culturally defined groups, or horizontal inequality (HI). Although relatively neglected in economic analysis...

This study evaluates the efficiency of small and large for-profit hospitals using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). For this study, small for-profit hospitals are 35 beds or less which is consistent with the Federal designation of critical access hospitals (CAH). Large for-profit hospitals are 36 beds and greater. Results indicate overall efficiency in small for-profit hospitals was 60% in 2013....

Material efficiency, as discussed in this Meeting Issue, entails the pursuit of the technical strategies, business models, consumer preferences and policy instruments that would lead to a substantial reduction in the production of high-volume energy-intensive materials required to deliver human well-being. This paper, which introduces a Discussion Meeting Issue on the topic of material efficien...

Different social planners may have different opinions on the wellbeing of individuals under different social options (Roberts, 1980). If utilities are translationor ratio-scale measurable, or if the social ranking might be incomplete, or if interplanner comparability is allowed; then there exists non-dictatorial aggregation rules. We propose extensions, intersections, and mixtures of the Pareto...

Most legal academics and policy makers believe that notions of fairness should be accorded positive weight in evaluating legal policies. We explain, however, that ascribing importance to any notion of fairness (other than one concerned solely with the distribution of income) will sometimes lead to a conflict with the Pareto principle. That is, to endorse a notion of fairness is to endorse the v...

In Amartya Sen’s capability approach, policy makers can focus on different levels to influence the well-being of a society. We argue that improving capability to function as well as absolute levels of functioning achievement should be complemented by attention given to improving individuals’ “conversion efficiency”, i.e. the efficiency with which individual resources are converted into well-bei...

in the presented research, heat transfer of a mobile electrolyte alkaline fuel cell (afc) (which the electrolyte has cooling role of system) has been considered. proper control volumes of system with specific qualification have been chosen. consequently, heat and mass transfer in control volumes have been assessed. considerations on them and contributed models lead to approve a double tube heat...