A simple model of an open exchange economy with two commodities is used to investigate the relative merits of small and large reforms: reforms are represented as movements in the relative price of the two commodities, achieved by tightening or relaxing quotas. Three approaches, based on majority voting, the costs of compensation, and social welfare, are used to compare the merits of small and l...

I consider an exchange economy in which each agent’s preferences are given by Ui = ui + θF , where ui is a standard utility function, F is a social objective function and θ is the weight F receives. Both F and θ are common to all individuals. I show that F ’s equilibrium value may be a decreasing function of θ. I also show that if F is a social welfare function whose argument are the ui’s, then...

This paper examines a dynamic model of nonlinear income taxation in which the government cannot commit to its future tax policy, and individuals are quasihyperbolic discounters who cannot commit to future consumption plans. The government has both paternalistic and redistributive objectives, and therefore uses its taxation powers to maximize a utilitarian social welfare function that reflects i...

We examined different model specifications to detect the presence of preference heterogeneity in a mode choice context. The specification that worked best allows for both systematic and random variations in tastes, with parameters obtained at the individual level using Bayesian methods. Subjective values of travel time (SVT) and expected individual compensated variation were derived and aggrega...

This paper qualitatively describes the deprivation under different coupling situations of two-dimensional indicators and then establishes the twodimensional coupling model on social deprivation, using the social welfare function approach and Foster-Greer-Thorbecke α P method. Finally, this paper applies the model to evaluate the social deprivation of 31 provinces in China under the coupling sta...

This paper analyzes nature protection by a social planner under different ‘utilitarian’ social welfare functions. For that purpose we construct an integrated model of the economy and the ecosystem with explicit consideration of nonhuman species and with competition between human and nonhuman species for land and prey biomass. We characterize and compare the efficient allocations when social wel...