# Objections to total surplus as tool for welfare measurement

I think people would agree that the most common tool for welfare measurements in economics is the notion of total surplus.

Throughout it's history, total surplus has been criticized several times and on different grounds. This post aims at being a repository of all those critiques.

• Which are the critiques of total surplus which seem the most relevant to you?

Note : this is not meant to be a "total surplus bashing" repository. I believe some of the best critique of a concept like total surplus are rarely the one attempting to destroy the concept, and more often those which help us understand when it is best to use it, and when it might be better not to use it.

• Which definition of surplus do you have in mind? May 12, 2015 at 10:24
• Total surplus = Consumer's surplus + Producer's surplus, where if $P^D$ and $P^S$ the inverse demand and supply, and $(q^*,p^*)$ are the (partial) equilibrium prices and quantity, CS = $\int_{0}^{q^*} P^D(q) - p^* dq$ and PS = $\int_{0}^{q^*} P^S(q) - p^* dq$ May 12, 2015 at 12:35
• One obvious critique is that total surplus is only a partial equilibrium notion, but there are others and I would be interested in gathering a list here. May 12, 2015 at 12:36