We investigate how income inequality affects social welfare in a model of voluntary contributions to multiple pure public goods. Itaya, de Meza, and Myles (1997) show that the maximization of social welfare precludes income equality in a single pure public good model. In contrast, we show that...

The relatively few studies of the Irish social welfare system have focused mainly on the forces behind the introduction of social welfare schemes rather than the impact which these schemes had in demographic and labour market terms. This note presents a preliminary examination of the issues and...