Ebook: Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy and Public Policy

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS, MORAL PHILOSOPHY, AND PUBLIC POLICY is an erudite and important book. It presents a serious challenge to the prevailing belief that economists' policy recommendations usually are or can be grounded solely in their scientific opinion. Hausman and McPherson display a keen sense of the assumptions that underlie rational-choice theory and how those assumptions affect the relevance of the models that rational-choice theorists devise. They also exhibit an intimate knowledge of the most cogent, contemporary approaches in moral philosophy. Although they sometimes go astray with regard to the specific implications of their broader argument, these missteps are only minor flows in an outstanding work.