Immigration and Economic Welfare: Resource and Environmental Aspects*

The relation between immigration and the economic welfare of residents b analyzed for resource-rich economies (such as Australia) both under competitive conditions and when various distortions are present Immigration provides efficiency gains for residents under distortion–free competition for standard ‘gains from trade’ reasons. Such reasons, however, tend to be ignored by immigration and ‘optimal population’ theorists who raise the issue of restricting immigration without explicitly referring to the distortions. In situations where distortions and externalities are present, we argue that it is generally preferable to devise policies which specifically target the distortions than to restrict immigration.     

A reconciliation of recent results in optimal taxation theory

The recent papers by Guesnerie and Diewert on tax reforms are interpreted as contributions to the characterization of second-best optima. This paper demonstrates that when it is possible to achieve any feasible direction of change in supplies by a differential change in producer prices, there are unique producer support prices. Under these circumstances, the apparent differences between Guesnerie and Diewert are reconciled. Optimality conditions with nonunique support prices are also considered.