Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Law
What’S The Matter With Welfare Economics?, Richard S. Markovits
What’S The Matter With Welfare Economics?, Richard S. Markovits
Richard S. Markovits
Welfare Economics is the branch of economics that focuses on economic efficiency. In my judgment, Welfare Economics and its applied sub-fields such as Environmental Economics and Public Finance are the branches of economics that are most relevant to legal practitioners and academics. This Article criticizes (1) the ways in which welfare economists define the field’s central concept—the impact of a non-government or government choice (or natural event) or set of Pareto imperfections on economic efficiency, (2) the protocol welfare economists use to predict or post-dict the impact of any choice or set of Pareto imperfections on economic efficiency, (3) the …
Free Markets: What, Why, When, Why Not, And What To Do About It, Richard S. Markovits
Free Markets: What, Why, When, Why Not, And What To Do About It, Richard S. Markovits
Richard S. Markovits
This Article analyzes the politically-salient claim that “free market systems of resource allocation” will produce optimal social outcomes in that pure “free market” resource-allocation systems will either maximize economic efficiency or be more economically efficient than any alternative system would be and will generate a morally-optimal distribution of income by causing people to be paid “what they produce.” The Article begins by pointing out that, contrary to the claims of its supporters, any “free market” system of resource allocation presupposes a great deal of government regulation to define and protect the private property-rights that are such systems’ foundation. The Article …