Measuring Sustainable Development Goals Performance: Chapter Nine - Toward a Geneva Consensus

The economist as such does not advocate criteria of optimality. He may invent them. He will discuss their pros and cons, sometimes before but preferably after trying out their implications. He may also draw attention to situations where allover objectives, such as productive efficievncy, can be served in a decentralized manner by particularized criteria, such as profit f maximization. But the ultimate choice is made, usually only implicitly and not always consistently, by the procedures of decision making inherent in the institutions, laws and customs of society. A wide range of professional competences enters into the preparation and deliberation of these decisions. To the extent that the economist takes part in this decisive phase, he does so in a double role, as economist, and as a citizen of his polity: local polity, national polity, or world polity. (Koopmans, 1975)