This paper analyzes the definition of economic efficiency. The standard definition used in economic literature is the Pareto Optimum which is based in the space of individual utilities. This paper proposes new definitions based on alternative spaces. The paper also introduces a dominance...

Is horizontal equity (HE) the "most widely accepted principle of equity"? Or does it stand in "opposition to the advancement of human welfare"? This paper argues that the case for the HE principle is not as straightforward as is usually thought and that it requires advanced notions of justice...

The social performance of fiscal redistributive mechanisms in Canada continues to receive a growing interest from politicians and research scientists. The aim of this paper is to assess the evolution of social classes in Canada and to check whether the market and governmental redistribution...

This paper studies the microeconomics of child vulnerability to kidnapping in an environment where child protection is produced through a private effort, a public investment and a foreign aid. We first show that in absence of public investment and foreign aid, private investment in child...

Ce papier estime l'évolution de la pauvreté au Québec et au Canada de 1996 à 2005 ainsi que les effets des principaux impôts et transferts aux particuliers sur l'allégement de la pauvreté. Cette analyse valide et complète les évaluations de certains organismes officiels tels que...

In this paper, we investigate the effect of a change in childcare subsidies on parental subjective well-being. Starting in 1997, the Canadian province of Québec implemented a generous program providing $5-a-day childcare to children under the age of 5. By 2007, the percentage of children...

The evaluation of development processes and of public policies often involves comparisons of social states in which populations differ in size and longevity. This requires social evaluation principles to be sensitive to both the number and the length of lives. This paper explores the use of...

Housing deprivation orderings raise challenges as far as measurement is concerned. The first challenge resides in the identification of an adequate variable that characterizes housing services consumed by households. Another challenge may arise in the comparisons of housing services consumption...

Qu'es-ce que la liberté? Qu'es-ce que l'égalité? En quoi une plus grande égalité peut-elle accroître la liberté? Telles sont les questions principales auxquelles tente de répondre cet article. Le problème du choix entre liberté et égalité soulève en effet le problème de la...

We investigate spatial poverty comparisons in three African countries using multidimensional indicators of well-being. The work is analogous to the univariate stochastic dominance literature in that we seek poverty orderings that are robust to the choice of multidimensional poverty lines and...