Welfare economics is a branch of
economics that uses
microeconomic techniques to simultaneously determine
allocative efficiency within an economy and the income
distribution associated with it. It analyzes social welfare, however
measured, in terms of economic activities of the individuals that comprise the theoretical society considered. As such, individuals, with associated economic activities, are the
basic units for aggregating to social welfare, whether of a group, a community, or a society, and there is no "social welfare" apart from the "welfare" associated with its individual units. Here, 'welfare' in its most general sense refers to well-being.
See more at Wikipedia.org...