There is an increasing literature that discusses how to measure the middle class. Some approaches are based on an arbitrary deÖnition such as income quartiles or the poverty line. Recently, Foster and Wolfson developed a methodology which lacks of arbitrariness that enables us to compare the...

The Pareto optimal concept does not concern with fairness or equality, it is a concept related to efficiency. In this paper, using techniques from the general equilibrium theory, we relate efficiency, fairness and stability of an economy.

General Equilibrium Theory (GE) scrutinizes the ability of markets to achieve efficient allocation of resources. The main purpose of this work is, in the framework to the GE to analyze, the possibility of design a mechanism enabling agents to make independent decisions compatible with social...

In this paper we show that in a pure exchange economy it is possible to improve the social welfare along an e±cient path. This path will be called the Negishi map. Moving the relative weights of the agent in a social welfare utility function, we obtain an e±cient path of allocations and social...

In this paper we show the strong relation existing between efficiency and social welfare. We introduce the concept of Negishi path, a differentiable manifold, that show the relation existing between distributions of social weights and efficient allocation. We show that it is possible to as- sign...

Since the early nineties in Swedish starts a welfare state transformation process that allows the participation of private operators in sectors emblematic of the welfare state, such as education, health, child care and assistance to adults. To date, experience shows that the coexistence of...

Although the wage distribution is central to analysing inequality issues, the provision of public services destined for t he poor can make an essential difference in evaluating inequality in welfare rather than in income. Whereas raising taxes to fund public services would lead to a...

In most Latin American countries abortion is illegal, and there are mitigating causes. However, studies for countries that have been releasing processes for more than two decades, such as the United States, show that different attitudes remain the same, ranging from pro-life to pro-choice views....

How much redistribution does Uruguay accomplish through social spending and taxes? How progressive are revenue collection and social spending? A standard fiscal incidence analysis shows that Uruguay achieves a nontrivial reduction in inequality and poverty when all taxes and transfers are...