為厚植經濟學門相關領域的研究基礎，本經典譯註計畫選定1998年諾貝爾經濟獎得主沈恩(Amartya K. Sen)於1970年出版的英文經典作品加以翻譯並加註釋，以嘉惠後學者。本書包括二十一章，前二十章 中的十章以一般未受過嚴格數理經濟學訓練的讀者為對象，其所對應的另外十章則將本書討論的各 項主體再以數學演繹的嚴謹方式導出集體選擇和社會福利的各種結論。最後一章是作者關於理論與 實務的結論。作者諸多貢獻之一即為清楚地界定出各種條件，而使得吾人得以據此將個人的價值集 合成集體決策，並據此導出與個人權利相一致的各種集體決策的規則。此書係作者獲頒諾貝爾經濟 獎所引用的重要著作之一，其重要性不言可喻。
To develop a broader research base for related fields of economics, this research project chose to translate and annotate the classic book entitled “Collective choice and Social Welfare”, published in 1970, by the 1998 Nobel Economics Laureate Amartya K. Sen. The book is about the theory of social choice, containing 21 chapters, and is divided into two parts: informal chapters followed by formal chapters. Informal chapters merely present statements and the relevance of the results without rigorous technical derivations or proofs, while formal chapters are for readers who are also interested in mathematical treatment for definiteness. According to the citation of the Nobel organization, one of Sen’s contributions to Economics is his clarification of “the conditions which permit aggregation of individual values into collective decisions, and the conditions which permit rules for collective decision making that are consistent with a sphere of rights for the individual.”This book, Collective Choice and Social Welfare, ranked high among Sen’s many seminal publications.
