What is Welfare?

Nobody supposes that economic welfare is coincident with the whole of welfare or that the State ought to pursue it relentlessly without regard for other goods—liberty, for instance, the amenities of the family, spiritual needs and so on. But here we are not concerned with these things; only with economic welfare, that is to say, the part of welfare that is associated with the economic aspects of life.

…welfare must be taken to refer either to the goodness of a man's state of mind or to the satisfactions embodied in it. …a situation containing more satisfaction is not necessarily "better" than one containing less. For the present purpose, I propose to make welfare refer to satisfactions, not goodness, thus leaving it possible that in certain circumstances, a government "ought"—granted that it "ought" to promote goodness—to foster a situation embodying less welfare (but more goodness) in preference to one embodying more welfare.
Pigou, AER 1951