A number of studies have evaluated the social welfare impact of price and income changes using equivalent incomes that are computed at some reference price vector, and an aggregator with these equivalent incomes as arguments in place of a social welfare function. This paper investigates the...

We study the link between second-best production efficiency and the constraints on income distribution imposed by private ownership of firms in economies with Ramsey taxation. We review the result of Dasgupta and Stiglitz [1972], Mirrlees [1972], Hahn [1973], and Sadka [1977] about firm-specific...

This paper explores how to optimally set taxes and transfers when taxation authorities: (1) are uninformed about individuals? value of time in both market and non-market activities and (2) can observe both market-income and time allocated to market employment. We show that optimal redistribution...

Public policies often involve choices of alternatives in which the size and the composition of the population may vary. Examples are the allocation of resources to prenatal care and the design of aid packages to developing countries. In order to assess the corresponding feasible choices on...