Efficiency, Equality and Public Policy With a Case for Higher Public
This book provides compelling arguments for the exclusive concern with efficiency ('a dollar is a dollar') in all specific areas of public economic policy, leaving the objective of equality to be achieved through the general tax/transfer system. Public po
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Also by Yew-Kwang Ng INCREASING RETURNS AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS (editor with K. Arrow and X. Yang) MESOECONOMICS: A MICRO–MACRO ANALYSIS SOCIAL WELFARE AND ECONOMIC POLICY SPECIALIZATION AND ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION (with X. Yang) WELFARE ECONOMICS
Efficiency, Equality and Public Policy With a Case for Higher Public Spending Yew-Kwang Ng Professor of Economics Monash University Victoria Australia
First published in Great Britain 2000 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-39897-3 ISBN 978-0-333-99277-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780333992777
First published in the United States of America 2000 by ST. MARTIN’S PRESS, INC., Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-23208-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ng, Yew-Kwang. Efficiency, equality and public policy : with a case for higher public spending / Yew-Kwang Ng. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-23208-5
1. Policy sciences. 2. Economic policy. 3. Expenditures, Public—Decision making. I. Title. H97 .N5 2000 338.9—dc21 99–056733 © Yew-Kwang Ng 2000 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-333-67165-8
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10 09
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To Siang, Aline, Eve, and Tess
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Contents Preface 1
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Introduction 1.1 A dollar is a dollar: a simple solution to the big efficiency–equality tradeoff 1.2 A partial resurrection of the old ‘new welfare economics’? 1.3 Introductory summary 1.4 A case for higher public spending 1.5 The misguided consensus 1.6 Three basic problems of social choice/public policy 1.7 Some specific points made 1.8 A methodological note 1.9 What this book is not about
Part I The Foundation of Public Economic Policy 2
1 1 1 2 4 5 7 9 9 10
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The Necessity of Interpersonal Cardinal Utility 2.1 An intuitive explanation using a parent’s choice 2.2 Economists’ misplaced hostility against cardinal utility 2.3 The impossibility of social choice based on ordinal utilities
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Welfari
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