Niveau: Supérieur, Doctorat, Bac+8
The Appropriate Treatment of Distribution in Economics Nicolaus Tideman* Abstract This paper argues that to address questions of distribution that concern economists, one must combine economics with a theory of justice. The paper traces the implications of one theory of justice that can be combined with economics, namely a theory that assumes that people have rights to themselves and that all people have equal rights to natural opportunities. This theory implies that people have the right to form the governments they choose, provided that they do not appropriate more than their shares of natural opportunities and that they allow all those who wish to do so to leave or to secede. The theory of justice also implies that there should be transfers among governments to equalize per-capita appropriations of natural opportunities. The obligation to compensate for appropriations of natural opportunities induces an incentive to make efficient decision about all appropriations of natural opportunities and all actions that benefit or harm other nations. The theory implies that in a just world the issues of distribution that concern economists become questions of morality or efficiency rather than justice, while in an unjust world these issues require tragic choices. * Professor of Economics, Virginia Tech. I am grateful to Florenz Plassmann for helpful comments.
- should act
- before there
- economists
- social welfare
- vilfredo pareto
- welfare function
- normative assumption