Animal Welfare Economics

This article highlights some key areas where economics can contribute to the current debate about animal welfare. Production economics reveals that producers will not maximize animal welfare, even if animal well-being is highly correlated with output. Welfare economics raises thorny issues about the double-counting of benefits when humans exhibit altruism towards animals, while public economics uncovers potential market failures and possible solutions. Consumer economics provides a means of determining human and animal benefits from animal well-being policies in dollar terms. Overall, economists have much to contribute to the animal welfare debate and the well-being of humans and animals could be improved with more economic analysis on the effects of private and government actions related to animal welfare.