Overview

Why does animal welfare matter? For some, it is because people care about animals; for others, it is because animals themselves are morally relevant. Given the importance of welfare in economics research and the debates around climate change and biodiversity loss, more economists are becoming interested in the economics of animal welfare. Animal Economics provides a general introduction to this new field. It explores the complexity of the behavioral attitude of humans toward animals using behavioral economics and explains how existing economic theory can be applied to understand animal welfare as an externality. Combining theory and empirical research to address key issues in animal welfare, including ethical perspectives, public opinion, market demand, and policy design, this book builds on economics principles to explore how to implement optimal policies that reflect human proanimal concerns and the moral status of animals.

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9781009699303

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Reviews

'The best discussion, by far, of how to explore animal welfare with the help of economics. Careful and rigorous analysis, produced with palpable moral conviction. This is a sensational achievement.' Cass R. Sunstein, Robert Walmsley Professor, Harvard University, and author, Manipulation 'Nicolas Treich has been a pioneer in animal welfare economics, and this book is a masterpiece that will put this field on solid grounds. There are many conceptual and empirical difficulties in the integration of non-human species into welfare economics, and this book proposes brave innovative ideas and develops useful tools for the analysis of policies, norms and behaviors that often dramatically impact our fellow living creatures. An excellent reference for students, researchers, and experts engaged in advocacy and policy-making.' Marc Fleurbaey, Paris School of Economics, CNRS, and ENS-PSL 'Academic, governmental, and public concern for the well-being of animals has increased enormously over the last half-century, and yet economics has generally limited its focus to human beings. Nicolas Treich is a world leader in the effort to bring animals within the ambit of welfare economics. It's ethically arbitrary, indeed unconscionable, for this discipline's powerful tools to be harnessed to the narrow objective of maximizing human well-being. This book synthesizes and makes accessible Treich's path-breaking research on how welfare economics can be reoriented to take account of all sentient animals, not just humans.' Matthew Adler, Richard A. Horvitz Professor of Law and Professor of Economics, Philosophy, and Public Policy, Duke University

Author Information

Nicolas Treich is a research associate at the Toulouse School of Economics and National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) in Toulouse, France. A pioneer in the emerging field of animal economics, he has authored over a dozen publications in leading economics journals and has delivered numerous keynote lectures on the economics of animal welfare.

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