Quality of life and economic evaluation

The author examines "the place and role of quality of life in economic evaluation and welfare economics. That exercise certainly involves norms and judgments, but it is also influenced by our reading of factual possibilities, and it influences, in its turn, the nature of prescriptive possibilities we explore and the descriptive statements we choose to make. In this sense, the topic is not confined to welfare economics and involves other branches of economics as well." This essay consists of two lectures, the second of which examines how longevity, life expectancy, and gender- and race-determined mortality differences can contribute to our understanding of quality of life.