Hans-Werner Sinn, Munich, West Germany This book contains 15 papers presented at a conference in Neresheim, West Ger many, in June 1986. The articles were selected by anonymous referees and most of them have undergone substantial revisions since their presentation. The common topic is measurement of welfare, both from efficiency and from equity perspectives. For many economists, welfare is a diffuse, arbitrary and am biguous concept. The papers collected in this book show that this view is not justified. Though not beyond all doubt, welfare theory today is crisp and clear, offering fairly...

This volume presents papers which were given at a conference of the Liberty Fund, Washington, co-sponsored by the Carl-Menger Institute, Vienna. The conference took place in Vienna in January 1988. All papers were subject to a refereeing process; some of them had to be revised very extensively. The economics of progressive taxation have been a research topic ever since economists have dealt with the economic role of the state. Old puzzles are the best: the theoretical underpinning of progressivity still is not fully convincing, even after 200 years of economic research. In the present volume...

Serious research into the causes and implications of an aging population is a relatively recent phenomenon. Though several relevant issues of aging havereceived considerable attention in public and political discussions (especially in European countries and in Japan), the economics profession is somewhat lacking behind. This is particularly true for thetheoretical underpinnings of the economics of population aging. Until now, the aging-debate is primarily led by institutionalists. The present book with its analytical and econometric studies on fiscal implications of population aging is an...