By inverting Saez (2002)'s model of optimal income taxation, we characterize the redistributive preferences of the Irish government between 1987 and 2005. The (marginal) social welfare function revealed by this approach is consistently comparable over time and show great stability despite...

This study analysed the contribution of economic growth and redistribution components to aggregate poverty changes in Ireland from 1987-2005, using the Shapley value decomposition approach. The analysis used the household disposable income data from the Household Budget Survey to calculate...

An ideal state of development, when viewed with fantasy, is nothing but a state or condition where light touches everybody without refraction. The diagonal line of the Lorenz Curve Framework represents such an ideal condition. In the presence of inequality, however, it deviates or refracts from...

In this paper we challenge the common interpretation of Rawls' Theory of Justice as Fairness by showing that this Theory, as outlined in the Restatement (Rawls 2001), goes well beyond the definition of a distributive value judgment, in such a way as to embrace efficiency issues as well. A simple...

In this paper, the world distribution of personal incomes (WDPI) is estimated using a global sample comprising country sample clones. A clone is a random sample that reproduces – with predetermined high probability and precision – an unknown survey sample using information that is 'encoded'...

Very little is known about wealth-holding and its distribution in Ireland in the past. Here we employ death duty register data to analyse and identify a sample of the top wealth holders in Ireland between the early 1820s and late 1830s. We examine the sources of their wealth and its regional...

Professor Justin Yifu Lin presented his ideas on approaches to development and transition at a distinguished speaker seminar on 5 December 2007. The seminar explored the reasons underlying both the dynamic economic growth of some countries such as Japan, newly industrialized economies (NIEs) in...