This paper inverts the usual logic of applied optimal income taxation. It starts from the observed distribution of income before and after redistribution and corresponding marginal tax rates. Under a set of simplifying assumptions, it is then possible to recover the social welfare function that...

Drawing from the formal setting of the optimal tax theory (Mirrlees 1971), the paper identifies the level of Rawlsianism of some European social planners starting from the observation of real data and redistribution systems and uses it to build a metric that allows measuring the degree of...

Introduction -- The state of poverty : TANF recipients -- The response to poverty and inequality : the welfare state -- Demonizing the single-mother family : the path to welfare reform -- The welfare bureaucracy -- Work and the low-wage labor market : mothers and children -- Welfare reform and...