In this first lecture in honour of Amartya Sen, I examine the lessons that can be drawn from <italic>The Idea of Justice</italic> for public economics and the extent to which public economics has already moved in the direction advocated by Sen. More specifically, I focus on the current fiscal austerity...

There is considerable interest in the estimation of linear structural equation models (including path analysis) of the evolution across generations of the distribution of income, of socioeconomic achievement, and of related variables. Given insufficient data, the estimation of the models has...

These two volumes bring together key articles in the field of modern public finance, a field which has seen a major revival of interest in the past 20 years. The articles reprinted are among those which have shaped its recent development, and include contributions by no fewer than seven Nobel...

This paper takes income distribution as a case study of the role of data in economics. After describing the transformation which has taken place with regard to the availability of data on income inequality, it discusses how the comparability of these estimates is brought into question by...

The measurement of poverty and social exclusion is analytically and operationally relevant at all levels of policymaking. Here our focus is on national governments making policy in a global or multinational context such as the European Union (EU). In this process, social indicators are playing a...