Normative Economics

Normative economics, sharing characteristics of political philosophy, is the branch of economics that makes ethical value judgments about economic policy and makes prescriptive statements about courses of policy action. It covers, for example, notions such as fairness and how to benefit the economically disadvantaged through welfare and/or free education. When it comes to, say, unemployment, normative economists will come up with and prescribe practical ways of reducing it based on fundamental ethical principles.