It is feasible in some competitive equilibria with externalities to shift some externality costs among different agents in the economy. However, simply shifting costs will not, in general, result in efficient allocation decisions by all agents, since the magnitude of externality costs depends on...

Nobel Prize-winning economist James Mirrlees is one of the world's leading figures in welfare, development, and public sector economics. This volume brings together for the first time twenty-three of his seminal papers on welfare economics, tax theory, public expenditure, contract theory, growth...

In this paper, I shall discuss how national income should be measured in an 'imperfect' economy, where feasible policy instruments such as taxes, tariffs, quotas, and quantitative controls do not operate in a lumpsum manner, and may be far from their optimum level. In particular, I want to...

Two kinds of models for a productive organization are presented. In the first, both production and rewards are based on the performance of individuals, which is perfectly observed. Their abilities are not observable. Despite this, theorems are proved giving strong grounds for the equality of...

Prize Lecture to the memory of Alfred Nobel, December 9, 1996.

Interview with Professor James A. Mirrlees at the 1st Meeting of Laureates in Economic Sciences in Lindau, Germany, September 1-4, 2004. Interviewer is freelance journalist Marika Griehsel.

Newton Stewart is a town of two thousand people in the beautiful centre of Galloway, in the southwest of Scotland. My father came there in 1934, newly married, to be a teller in one of the six banks. In 1936 I was born, in a cottage across the river in the neighbouring village of Minnigaff....