 An alternative that has been introduced in the late 1930s is Hicks-Kaldor improvement (after Hicks 1939 and Kaldor 1939). If there are winners and losers to a policy, it constitutes a Hicks-Kaldor improvement whenever losers can be compensated by winners’ gains. But that losers can be compensated is little consolation unless they actually are compensated, and there is no reason to believe that this always happens (see for instance Rodrik 2017 on the failures to compensate losers from free-trade arrangements).