The Theory of Social Costs of K. William Kapp: Some Notes on Sebastian Berger’s The Social Costs of Neoliberalism

Abstract

In the last few years, there has been a revival of interest in the work of K. William Kapp. The recent publication of The Social Costs of Neoliberalism: Essays on the Economics of K. William Kapp, by Sebastian Berger, provides us an excellent opportunity to revisit Kapp’s work on social costs. In this short paper, I discuss three issues: (1) the definition of social costs; (2) the relationship between Kapp’s approach to social costs and neoliberalism; and, finally, (3) the valuation problem. It is expected that this may contribute to stimulate further research interest and debate on Kapp’s work.