Ai-Thu Dang

Amartya Sen's Capability Approach: A Framework for Well-Being Evaluation and Policy Analysis?

The aim of this paper is twofold: first, we discuss the main conceptual and methodological issues related to the operationalization of Amartya Sens capability approach. Second, we review quantitative applications of the capability approach in different domains to examine how methodological and empirical challenges are addressed. The use of the capability approach implies a broadening of the “informational basis of judgments” and thereby leads to conclusions that differ from those drawn using standard economic approaches.

The French System of Direct and Indirect Family Transfers and the Principles of Justice

This paper uses the theoretical framework proposed by the “post-welfarist” authors in order to highlight the principles of justice that underlie implicitly or explicitly the family benefits and direct income tax systems in France. Three principles are identified : the principle of the ability to contribute, the principle of compensation, and the principle of solidarity or guaranteed minimum resources. This approach is useful, in particular, to stress how socio-demographic and earned-income characteristics are taken into account in the French system of direct and indirect family transfers and the role of individual responsability in the minimum income schemes.

Technological Change and Economic Dynamics from the Scottish Enlightenment to Contemporary Evolutionary Economics

The aim of this paper is twofold: first, we show that some theoretical continuities exist between the approaches of Mandeville, Ferguson and Smith to the division of labor and the contemporary analyses of technical change and economic dynamics, which consider innovation as a process of technological creation. We thus offer a further exploration of the origins of evolutionary ideas in the history of evolutionary economics. Second, despite of the existence of these theoretical continuities, we highlight the differences between the Scottish Enlightenment authors and the modern evolutionary economists on the issue of temporality and the place of history in their reflections.