The public at large, many policymakers, and a number of economists hold views of social welfare that are non-welfarist. That is, they attach some importance to factors other than the effects of policies on individuals' utilities. We show, however, that any non-welfarist method of policy...

Provides a conceptual framework (similar to that used to justify tax base and rate structure choices) for assessing complexity, compliance and enforcement costs of incremental reforms and fundamental restructuring of the tax system.

Compares traditional definitions and recently offered indexes of horizontal equity. Assesses the extent to which the persuasive force often thought to support more recent invocations of horizontal equity in the context of tax reform can be understood better in the traditional social welfare...

Argues that the normative principles of utilitarianism should guide tax policy assessment. Arguments to the contrary (based on concerns about equity, income distribution, and incentive problems caused by redistributive taxation) are inconsistent with the Pareto principle, which states that any...

In my original paper, I demonstrated that, under standard simplifying assumptions, it is possible to finance a public good in a manner such that a Pareto improvement results whenever the simple cost-benefit test is satisfied-that is, without any adjustment for the "marginal cost of funds." In...

Throughout the world, the rule against price fixing is competition law's most important and least controversial prohibition. Yet there is far less consensus than meets the eye on what constitutes price fixing, and prevalent understandings conflict with the teachings of oligopoly theory that...

Substantial evidence suggests that savings behavior may depart from neoclassical optimization. This article examines the implications of raising the savings rate - whether through social security, retirement plans, or otherwise - for labor supply, where labor supply is determined by behavioral...