Policy analysis,welfare economics,and the greenhouse effect

Welfare economics is evaluated as a framework for setting policy with respect to the greenhouse effect. It is found to be unpromising for three reasons: (1) The concept of discounting leads to the view that events in the further future have no value, (2) the baselines necessary to use welfare-economic decision rules cannot be established, and (3) no nonparadoxical answer can be given to the question: How should we value the welfare of future persons? As analysts begin the task of formulating policy with respect to the greenhouse effect they will need tools other than thoser provided by welfare economics.     

Penology,economics, and the public: Toward an agreement

In this paper we confront the problem of why prisons are not a more effective tool for dealing with criminals. Several sources of this problem are suggested, and reasonably operational solutions are proposed. These solutions are motivated by basic principles of economics, and some broader consequences of this framework for dealing with criminal activity are briefly discussed.This article stems from general issues which arose while the author was at SUNY/Binghamton preparing a dissertation on somewhat more specific cost-benefit questions of prison management. He is indebted to Clifford Kern, A. G. Holtmann, and B. A. Weisbrod for lively comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Democracy,credibility, and sound economics: The Israeli hyperinflation

The 1985 Israeli economic stabilization program provides a rare case of stable (as of late 1996) success under democratic auspices without major social disorder. Existing explanations for the success of the Israeli reforms overemphasize economics at the expense of politics. This paper analyzes the political causes of the early 1980s Israeli hyperinflation. The program's economic measures and performance are reviewed. The Israeli economic stabilization program succeeded because it was considered credible by the Israeli public. The social and political factors that contributed to the program's credibility are investigated and their importance is ranked. The applicability of the paper to other economic reforms under democratic auspices is highlighted and future research is outlined.     

Climate risks,climate economics,and the foundations of rights-based risk ethics

In this article, I argue that climate ethics must basically be risk ethics. But risk ethics is still an underdeveloped field of normative ethics. For example, rights-based ethical theories, the attractive features of which are outlined in this article, tend to prohibit all risk impositions. Such inability of rights-based theories to deal convincingly with risks could be a reason why the standard approach of climate economics, which as I try to show is based on questionable normative presuppositions, is still as influential as it is. I propose a solution to the problems rights-based moral theories have with risks and outline the basic criteria of permissible and impermissible risk impositions. Finally, I indicate that this will enable us to tackle climate risks in a promising way. The main aim of the article, however, is not to contribute to concrete questions of climate ethics but to the improvement of its normative foundations.     

Gordon Tullock and experimental economics

Gordon Tullock’s research has substantially influenced the development of economic science in general and experimental economics in particular. We present the first comprehensive survey of this significant achievement. We show how Tullock’s research in bioeconomics influenced later developments in neuroeconomics and how his pioneering work on rent-seeking generated a literature of laboratory tests of his hypothesis. We also describe Tullock’s own experiments and draw attention to his early insights on trust games.     

A shrinking state? Politics,economics and private health care in Thailand

This article explores the political and economic forces involved in the development of privatization policies within the health care sector in Thailand. It is suggested that many of the motivating factors behind private sector growth are outside of the health sector; the general macroeconomic environment and tax incentives have stimulated private sector expansion. Within the Ministry of Public Health a preoccupation with improving care in rural areas and an unclear policy line on the private sector has facilitated this expansion. Only recently has private sector growth come to the policy agenda. During this lag period a number of interest groups have developed. It will be difficult to overcome these entrenched interests in order to change policy direction. Meanwhile, problems of rapid cost inflation and inequity face the Thai health care system. Although this case study focuses upon the health care sector in Thailand it would appear relevant both to other sectors and to other countries. The relationship between development models based upon pro-private, pro-market tenets and the establishment of a satisfactory social policy is questioned.     

A law and economics perspective on terrorism

This paper reviews the existing law and economics literature on crime, noting where various models might apply to the terror context. Specifically, it focuses on two strands of the literature, deterrence and incapacitation. It considers anti-terror measures enacted by different countries, highlighting how the details of the laws correspond to the insights from economic models of crime. In conclusion, the paper proposes an efficient sorting mechanism in which individuals will be provided with incentives to reveal their type to law enforcement authorities.     

Steady-state economics versus growthmania: A critique of the orthodox conceptions of growth,wants, scarcity,and efficiency

Section I discusses the growthmania mind-set and considers various types of limits to growth ignored by adherents to this majority position.Section II investigates the conceptual roots of growthmania: the orthodox doctrines of relative scarcity and absolute wants. It is argued that at the margin the opposite categories of absolute scarcity and relative wants are more important, and that just as the implication of the former categories was growthmania, so the implication of the latter (opposite) categories is a steady-state economy.Section III defines and discusses the alternative to a growth-oriented economy, namely a steadystate economy.Section IV discusses the notions of efficiency and technical progress from the steady-state perspective, and argues that growth in output flow as conventionally measured results, beyond some point, in a reduction in both the service efficiency of the stock and the maintenance efficiency of the throughput, and thereby makes throughput growth a perverse index of welfare.In Section V the issue of transition to and appropriate institutions for a steady-state are discussed.Section VI considers in more detail an institution for controlling aggregate throughput, namely a system of auctioned depletion quotas, and contrasts it with the orthodox recommendation of pollution taxes.Expanded version of a paper presented at the symposium on Economic Growth and the Quality of Life sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts, Oregon State University, May 10–11, 1973.