ABSTRACT
Notwithstanding the limitations of the market in promoting welfare, discussed in the preceding chapter, the belief that economic expertise – which term comprehends familiarity with the norms of allocative efficiency and proposals for their application – can make a substantial contribution to human betterment is one that dies hard in the profession. Among the disinterested, however, it may die more easily, particularly if they reflect on a number of considerations I invoke in this and the following two chapters. In this present chapter I restrict myself to two observations that, if I interpret them aright, act to weaken the confidence that can be reposed in economic calculation that informs public policy, in particular the evaluation and ranking of public projects. In the chapter that follows, this iconoclasm is carried further in a more radical critique of the general presumption favouring economic growth.
