An Inquiry into Well-being and Destitution - Hardcover

Dasgupta, Partha

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198287569 ISBN 13: 9780198287568

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1993

Synopsis

Destitution is the main subject matter of this study. It ranges through moral philosophy and political science to anthropology, welfare economics, economic theory and nutrition science. Dasgupta is concerned with reconciling empirical evidence with theoretical analysis, and with presenting a coherent description of the causes of undernourishment. This volume should be of interest to nutritionists and anthropologists in that it presents undernourishment, differences in calorie needs, and the phenomenon of adaptation to low energy intake - genetic, physiological and behavioural. It also addresses the current debate over methods for estimating the incidence of undernourishment, and is written in a style suitable for readers who are not economists, leaving the formal material to be presented in an appendix. This book is placed in the context of philosophical work on general well-being, and with the aim of stimulating research on policies to remedy the state of destitution. Dasgupta uses, for example, modern analytical political philosophy to define the role of the state in the context of resource-poor economies, and concludes from his empirical evaluation of 40 of the world's poorest countries that there is a striking correlation between a country enjoying greater political and civil liberties and performing better in terms of per capita income, life expectancy and the other measurement standards he outlines. He advocates the existence and recognition of both positive and negative rights, and avoids the tendency of development economics works to concentrate on mortality or growth and ingore the role of these rights.

About this title

About the Author

About the Author:
Partha Dasgupta is Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St. John's College. He was also Professor of Economics, Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Program in Ethics in Society at Stanford University from 1989-1992. He is Research Advisor to the United Nations University's World Institute for Development Economics Research, Chairman of the Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics, and Senior Research Fellow of the Institute for Policy Reform.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198287569
• ISBN 13: 9780198287568
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 679