Economics: Messy genesis of the welfare state

The Economics of Animal Health and Welfare

Introduction There are many definitions of the term ‘animal welfare’ (Swanson, 1995; Spedding, 2000). For instance: “welfare is normally defined as a state of well-being, in which at least basic needs are met and suffering is minimized” (Spedding, 2000, p.9). This is a simplistic definition, which deals mainly with an animal’s physical needs and implies that suffering can only be minimised. Thi...

The Welfare Economics of Urban Structure

In defense of the sprawling, low-density development which increasingly characterizes modern cities, Gordon and Richardson (1986, 1996) argue that the urban spatial structure generated by market forces reflects the will of the people. Planners, in contrast, typically have little faith in either the efficiency or equity of market-determined outcomes, and advocate detailed land use planning. To e...

The Global Welfare Economics of Immigration By

We study the effect of immigration on global welfare. The world is modeled as consisting of two regions, South and North, the former populated by low-skill workers, and the latter by both lowand high-skill workers. Production in the North uses both labor inputs in a complementary way. A trade union in the North keeps the wage of low-skill workers above the Walrasian wage, generating unemploymen...

The welfare economics of land use planning

This paper presents an empirical methodology for the evaluation of the beneÞts and costs of land use planning. The technique is applied in the context of the Town and Country Planning System of the UK, and examines the gross and net beneÞts of land use regulation and their distribution across income groups. The results show that the welfare and distributional impacts can be large. Proposed Runn...

Discussion: The Economics of Animal Welfare