Barr, Nicholas 
ORCID: 0000-0002-5325-2055
(1992)
Economic theory and the welfare state : a survey and interpretation.
Journal of Economic Literature, 30 (2).
pp. 741-803.
ISSN 0022-0515
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Abstract
'I propose here the view that, when the market fails to achieve an optimal state, society will, to some extent at least, recognize the gap, and nonmarket social institutions will arise attempting to bridge it....' (Kenneth Arrow 1963, p. 947). 'Economic theorists traditionally banish discussions of information to footnotes. Serious consideration of costs of communication, imperfect knowledge ... would, it is believed, complicate without informing.... [T]his comforting myth is false. Some of the most important conclusions of economic theory are not robust to considerations of imperfect information' (Michael Rothschild and Joseph Stiglitz 1976, p. 629). 'That any sane nation, having observed that you could provide for the supply of bread by giving bakers a pecuniary interest in baking for you, should go on to give a surgeon a pecuniary interest in cutting off your leg, is enough to make one despair of political humanity' (George Bernard Shaw, The Doctor's Dilemma, 1911).
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www.aeaweb.org/journal.html |
| Additional Information: | Published 1992 © American Economics Association. LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. |
| Divisions: | European Institute LSE Health Economics |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory |
| Date Deposited: | 15 Feb 2008 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Dec 2024 21:57 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/279 |
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