Food for thought with Dr Roberto Fumagalli
22 January 2025, 12:30 pm – 4 January 2025, 2:00 pm
Location: IEA 2 Lord North Street ( entrance on Great Peter Street) London SW1 3LB
Think tank: Institute of Economic Affairs
This event hosted by UK think tank the Institute for Economic Affairs will discuss preference-based approaches to welfare evaluations in public policy.
About the discussion
This paper combines insights from welfare economics, political philosophy and cross-disciplinary well-being research to defend preference-based approaches to welfare evaluations in public policy against a series of influential objections. The paper explicates and addresses in turn: the objection from respect; the objection from individual agency; the objection from anti-paternalism; the objection from liberal neutrality; and the objection from socio-economic justice. The paper argues that the proponents of preference-based approaches to welfare evaluations can successfully address these objections and that economists, philosophers and policymakers are justified in relying on such approaches.
About the speaker
Dr Roberto Fumagalli is Senior Lecturer at King’s College London and has research affiliations with the London School of Economics and the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests encompass a wide range of areas, including philosophy of economics, philosophy of science, moral and political philosophy, and philosophy and public policy. He has published several articles in leading international journals including Philosophical Studies, Philosophy of Science, Economics and Philosophy, Biology and Philosophy, Erkenntnis, Synthese, Theory and Decision, Social Choice and Welfare, Journal of Social Philosophy, Bioethics, Public Health Ethics, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, and the Journal of Economic Methodology.
About the series
This will be the next instalment in our monthly Food for Thought series, hosted in partnership with the Vinson Centre at the University of Buckingham. The purpose of this series is to foster high-level academic discussion on themes within the classical liberal tradition, touching on economics, philosophy, history, law, and related disciplines. In turn, we hope to form a community of academics, policymakers, professionals, and students united by the exchange of ideas and life-long learning.
