Readings in Welfare Economics: A Selection of papers from the Review of Economic Studies

In this book are reprinted some of the most important papers on welfare economics which were first published in the Review of Economic Studies. Since Lerner's classic article on monopoly power appeared in Volume I, the Review has published important contributions to many of the interrelated topics which comprise welfare economics in its broad sense. Thus the reader will find not only key discussions of the attempt to replace interpersonal comparisons by rigorous compensation tests, but also extensive treatment of the problem of optimum tariff structures, including some amazingly precise numerical estimates. The main articles in the famous 'second best' controversy are reproduced as are seminal articles on the difficulties in introduced by uncertainty and by the intertemporal allocation of resources in a planned economy is representative of the best work in that field.