This research program consists of exploring the interconnections between (1) welfare economics, (2) social choice theory, (3) decision theory and rational choice, and (4) social ethics and the theory of justice. Each of these fields can be strengthened by taking more substantive note of the others. To illustrate, welfare economics can benefit substantially from the progress recently made in formal social choice theory in accomodating a wide class of informational inputs (including cardinality and comparability of different types and non-utility information in the form of liberty, rights, freedoms and living standards). It can also benefit from the wider ethical concerns in substantive theories of justice and from admitting a greater variety of norms and strategies of individual behavior in the presence of social interdependence. Similarly, rational choice theory can be foundationally enriched by taking more explicit note of the agent's ethical concerns and of welfare-economic sophistication. The reexamination of the foundations of social choice theory, welfare economics and rational choice theory will be carried out in the first research phase of three years, followed in the next two years by a critical examination of the demands of an informationally richer approach to social justice.
