Welfare Economic Aspects of Capital Punishment

Abstract . Much has been written in recent years concerning the issue of capital punishment. The major argument on the side of the retentionists appears to revolve around deterrence. Using postulates from modern welfare economics the authors demonstrate that the deterrence question is largely irrelevant. Attention is also given to extracting materials from the writings of earlier economists from Petty to Mill which may be helpful in resolving the issue. The conclusion which emerges is that capital punishment is not justifiable on economic grounds.     

试论铁路改革的经济福利

本文借助“有无对比法”,提出计算铁路改革经济福利的思路,分析铁路改革的目标、途径及“网运分离”的意义。     

福利经济学对农民均衡分享经济发展成果诠释

运用福利经济学原理解说农民如何分享经济发展成果,并提出解决路径,如农民市民化、农民集约化、农民科技化、农民权利常规化等,力求寻找解决农民问题的新路径,期望为农民分丰经济发展成果提供理论借鉴.     

经济增长的福利转化效应：中国与世界比较

基于Sen的福利理念与Daly的经济增长绩效思路,对世界55个主要国家的福利转化状况进行深入的量化分析。研究表明：Sen理念的福利指数与传统的Pigou理念福利指数,在变化趋势上,具有截然相反的特征,由于传统的Pigou福利理念过度关注商品及其效用已广受诟病,因此,基于Sen理念制定福利政策可能更具有正确的导向意义;清廉投入对福利转化效率的影响在不同类型国家会具有截然不同的效果,其中清廉投入显著促进了中国社会福祉的改善;各国的福利转化,相对于自身经济水平和福利转化效率,具有一个最优水平。中国从2010年后迅速提升了促进福利转化的努力程度,2012年中国的福利转化几乎接近其最优水平,相对于世界其他国家,中国目前能够较为容易地实现其社会经济和谐发展的最优状态。     

The Long-Run Effect of Economic Development Policy on Resident Welfare in a Perfectly Competitive Urban Economy

This paper argues that evaluations of economic development policy must consider the long-run effect on resident welfare. The paper uses comparative static analysis of a closed, urban economy with an explicit labor market, to investigate the effect of policies that stimulate economic activity. The paper finds that such policies do not necessarily raise resident welfare, because of the competition for land between firms and households. On the other hand, the paper does find that income transfers increase resident welfare. This model assumes, however, that the land, capital, and labor markets are perfectly competitive. Therefore, these results are based on the assumption that an urban economy is efficient.     

Focus on Economic Sociology A Principal-Agent Analysis of the Family: Implications for the Welfare State

This paper suggests that a principal-agent perspective may be one of several useful ways of analyzing the family. The principal-agent literature has so far ignored an important set of cases where the principal is incapable of defining and defending her own interests, and so is assigned an agent by law or custom. This paper applies principal-agent analysis to one such case, the family, where the child is taken as the principal and the parent is her agent. The principal-agent problem within families creates a prima facie case for certain state interventions to protect the interests of child-principals. The principal-agent perspective on the family sheds new light on two old debates: about provision of state welfare services in cash or in kind, and about user fees for social services.     

Productivity and Welfare

Technical change is generally characterized by a rate and biases, both evaluated for given producer prices. This paper examines the potential discrepancy between this rate and the corresponding rate of consumer welfare change as measured by Allais distributable surplus. We postulate a general equilibrium context with various market failures (taxes, quotas, imperfect competition, and “poorly priced” commodities), and use comparative statics to express the rate of welfare change in terms of the rate and biases of the technical change. An elementary simulation model of a taxed economy suggests that the rate of welfare change may differ from the rate of technical change by as much as 50% under plausible circumstances.     

Time on Welfare

A bstract . Long-term welfare participation by women is examined using data from Akron , Ohio. Age at entry to welfare, previous work experience , and number of children are the best predictors of long-term welfare use. Race and education are not statistically significant. Changes in family structure are the major reason why women enter welfare. But labor market reasons predortant for married couples. Labor market reasons are the most important reason why women leave the welfare system. For "high risk" women, welfare is less a safety net than a dependency trap. Public policy should focus on pregnancy among high-risk teens.     

Labor Force and Welfare Program Participation: The Effects of Welfare

A bstract This research examines the quantitative impacts of welfare program characteristics and individual characteristics on both the labor force and welfare participation decisions of low-income females with children . The participation decisions are estimated jointly as a bivariate probit model using data derived from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey for the years 1979 to 1990, inclusive. These data allow the estimation of the precise behavioral impacts of welfare. The main empirical findings are that effective welfare guarantee levels and the effective welfare tax rate on unearned income both significantly affect the probability of labor force and welfare program participation, but that such impacts are very small in magnitude. Implications for policy are discussed.     

Welfare migration in Europe

The enlargement of the European Union has increased concerns about the role of generous welfare transfers in attracting migrants. This paper explores the issue of welfare migration across the countries of the pre-enlargement European Union and finds a significant but small effect of the generosity of welfare on migration decisions. This effect, however, is still large enough to distort the distribution of migration flows and, possibly, offset the potential benefits of migration as an inflow of mobile labour into countries with traditionally immobile native workers.     

Sweden's Crumbling Welfare State

The 'Social Democracy' of Sweden is commonly offered as a model for Europe and the West. Four Swedish authors combine to demonstrate the accelerating failure of the Swedish welfare state and the disillusion revealed by former adherents and advocates in Swedish industry and academia.     

Welfare targeting in networks

This paper investigates welfare targeting for public goods in networks. First, we show that a tax/subsidy scheme (not necessarily budget-balanced) affects each consumer only insofar as it affects his neighbourhood. Second, we show that either a Pareto-improving income redistribution can be found or there exist Negishi weights, which we relate to the network structure. Third, in the case of Cobb–Douglas preferences, we show that a Law of Welfare Targeting holds and links two well-known notions of the comparative statics of policy interventions: neutrality and welfare paradoxical effects. Collectively, our findings uncover the importance of the $-1$ eigenvalue to economic and social policy: it is an indication of how consumers absorb the impact of income redistribution.     

The Politics of Welfare

People must be given the maximum opportunities to opt out of state provision-both consumers and providers. Rational criticism of state welfare, including the historical evidence, should be encouraged. And the family, charities, churches and voluntary associations should be seen as the mostappropriate moral outlet for compassion.     

Welfare paradox in economic restructuring

It can be proved theoretically that, because of the previously existing price and structural distortion, a welfare paradox is possible in the former command economies during the transition period. This paradox refers to a situation in which a welfare gain is accompanied by a fall in the reported GNP figure.