Introduction: revisiting the history of welfare economics Roger E. Backhouse, Antoinette Baujard and Tamotsu Nishizawa; Part I. Plurality of Welfare in the Making of Welfare Economics: 1. Ruskin's romantic triangle: neither wealth nor beauty but life Yuichi Shionoya; 2. Radicalism versus Ruskin: quality and quantity in Hobson's welfare economics Peter Cain; 3. Alfred Marshall on progress and human wellbeing Tamotsu Nishizawa; 4. Pigou's welfare economics revisited: a non-welfarist and non-utilitarian interpretation Satoshi Yamazaki; 5. To which kind of welfare did Léon Walras refer? The theorems and the state Richard Arena; 6. Value judgement within Pareto's economic and sociological approaches to welfare Rogerio Arthmar and Michael McClure; Part II. Developing Modern Welfare Economics: 7. John Hicks's farewell to economic welfarism: how deeply rooted and far reaching is his Non-Welfarist Manifesto? Kotaro Suzumura; 8. Individualism and ethics: Paul Samuelson's welfare economics Roger E. Backhouse; 9. Non welfarism in the early debates over the Coase theorem: the case of environmental economics Steven Medema; 10. Richard Musgrave and the idea of community Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay; 11. Non-welfaristic features of Kenneth Arrow's ideas of justice Nao Saito; 12. Beyond welfarism: the potential and limitations of the capability approach Constanze Binder; 13. The influence of Sen's applied economics on his non-welfarist approach to justice: agency at the core of public action for removing injustices Muriel Gilardone; Conclusion Roger E. Backhouse, Antoinette Baujard, and Tamotsu Nishizawa.

'Welfare Theory, Public Action, and Ethical Values is a collection of twelve essays at the intersection of the historical analysis of welfare economics and its contemporary challenges. The volume ties multiple and complex themes - fairness, wellbeing, the role of the individual in society - into a balanced whole. Many of the issues raised will be of the most fundamental importance to economic theory and public economics in the coming decades.' Marianne Johnson, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh