Economic Theory of Public Enterprise

ISBN-13: 9783540105671 / Angielski / Miękka / 1981 / 142 str.

D. Bos

Opis

The topic of this book has fascinated me for a long time. I have given lectures on the economic theory of public enterprise as professor at the universities of Bonn, Vienna and Graz since 1974 and as visiting professor at the London School of Economics since 1976. I discussed particular problems at scientific conferences. This book is the result of all this scientific business. I have greatly benefited from discussing various ideas with my colleagues. In Germany and Austria, above all N.Andel, Ch.B.Blankart, D.Elixmann, B.Genser, G.Gyarfas, R. Holzmann , Ch.Seidl, J.Tillmann, R.Watzke, W.Wiegard and G.Winckler have to be mentioned. At London School of Economics, discussions with A.Atkinson, Ch.Foster, S.Glaister, A.R.Prest, D.Quarmby, W.H.Robson, A.Sen, R.Turvey and A.A. Walters have been indicative for me. Last not least my thanks go to my German, Austrian and British students, especially to the critical ones among them. Needless to say that mentioning these discussion partners only means thanking them. The responsibility for any remaining faults is only at me.

Spis treści

§ 1 Introduction.- § 2 Theoretical foundations of allocation policy.- 1. Benefit-cost analysis and consumer surplus.- 1.1 An empirically applicable welfare basis for public enterprise policy.- 1.2 Different kinds of consumer surplus reconsidered.- 2. Partial versus general microeconomic analysis.- 3. The quantitative importance of allocative efficiency.- § 3 Marginal-cost pricing.- 1. Economic interpretation of marginal-cost pricing.- 2. Joint production, quality differentiation and peakload pricing.- 3. Zerotariffs as a special concept for allocation.- 4. Regulating marginal-cost prices.- 4.1 Theoretical background.- 4.2 The problem of cross-subsidization.- 4.3 Problems of practical application of marginal-cost prices.- 4.4 The British experiences.- 5. Consequeaces for allocation, distribution and stabilization.- § 4 Welfare maximization under a revenue-cost constraint.- 1. Nonlinear and nonuniform pricing.- 1.1 In search of an optimal price schedule.- 1.2 Nonuniform pricing.- 2. Uniform pricing à la Ramsey.- 3. On the opportunity costs of financing deficits.- 4. Regulating Ramsey prices.- 4.1 Regulation by changing environment.- 4.2 Regulation by fixing relevant variables in a given environment.- 5. Economic consequences of Ramsey prices and of two-part tariffs.- 5.1 Cross-subsidization.- 5.2 Influence on allocation, distribution and stabilization.- § 5 Interdependencies with the private economy.- 1. Interdependencies caused by producers.- 1.1 A simple (graphical) example.- 1.2 Welfare maximizing public enterprise with profit constrained private enterprises.- 2. Interdependencies caused by consumers.- 2.1 Congestion effects.- 2.2 Capacity limits of public peak traffic.- 2.3 Demand interdependencies and energy conservation.- § 6 Non-allocational objectives.- 1. Description of different non-allocative objectives.- 1.1 Maximizing a distributionally weighted consumer surplus.- 1.2 Minimizing price indices.- 1.3 Sales (revenue) maximization.- 1.4 Output maximization.- 2. The fundamental optimization problem 94.- 3. Economic interpretation of the results.- 3.1 Optimization approaches of the allocative basic structure.- 3.2 Optimization approaches with distributional interference.- 4. Some remarks on other non-allocational objectives.- § 7 Public-good pricing.- 1. Optimal prices for public goods 108.- 2. Some remarks on the applicability of public-good pricing.- § 8 Conclusion: Welfare economics, business economics, and political economics.- 1. Business economics of public enterprises.- 1.1 Comparing efficiency of public and private production.- 1.2 Cost-axiomatic public pricing.- 2. Political economics of public enterprises.- 2.1 Public versus private supply.- 2.2 The voting decision of a rational consumer.- 2.3 The politician’s decision.- Appendix Obtaining the Ramsey price structure from maximization of consumer surplus.- References.