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Sufficient Statistics Revisited

Author

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  • Henrik J. Kleven

    (Department of Economics and School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA)

Abstract

This article reviews and generalizes the sufficient statistics approach to policy evaluation. The idea of the approach is that the welfare effect of policy changes can be expressed in terms of estimable reduced-form elasticities, allowing for policy evaluation without estimating the structural primitives of fully specified models. The approach relies on three assumptions: that policy changes are small, that government policy is the only source of market imperfection, and that a set of high-level restrictions on the environment and on preferences can be used to reduce the number of elasticities to be estimated. We generalize the approach in all three dimensions. It is possible to develop transparent sufficient statistics formulas under very general conditions, but the estimation requirements increase greatly. Starting from such general formulas elucidates that feasible empirical implementations are in fact structural approaches.

Suggested Citation

  • Henrik J. Kleven, 2021. "Sufficient Statistics Revisited," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 13(1), pages 515-538, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:anr:reveco:v:13:y:2021:p:515-538
    DOI: 10.1146/annurev-economics-060220-023547
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Marcus Berliant & Pierre C. Boyer, 2022. "Politics and Income Taxes: Progress and Progressivity," CESifo Working Paper Series 10041, CESifo.
    2. Löffler, Max & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2015. "Property Taxation, Local Labor Markets and Rental Housing," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112967, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Ellalee, Haider & Alali, Walid Y., 2022. "A Welfare and Pass-Through Effects of Regulations within Imperfect Competition," MPRA Paper 116512, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Thomas Høgholm Jørgensen & Jakob Egholt Søgaard, 2021. "Welfare Reforms and the Division of Parental Leave," CEBI working paper series 21-09, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI).
    5. Ferey, Antoine, 2022. "Redistribution and Unemployment Insurance," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 345, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    6. Henrik Kleven & Claus Thustrup Kreiner & Kristian Larsen & Jakob Egholt Søgaard, 2023. "Micro vs Macro Labor Supply Elasticities: The Role of Dynamic Returns to Effort," NBER Working Papers 31549, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Francisco Cabezon, 2022. "The Optimal Size and Progressivity of Old-Age Social Security," Papers 2211.03912, arXiv.org.
    8. Adachi, Takanori, 2023. "A sufficient statistics approach for welfare analysis of oligopolistic third‐degree price discrimination," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    9. Georges Casamatta, 2023. "Optimal income taxation with tax avoidance and endogenous labour supply," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(3), pages 913-939, August.
    10. Adachi, Takanori & Fabinger, Michal, 2022. "Pass-through, welfare, and incidence under imperfect competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    11. Takanori ADACHI, 2022. "Recent Advances in the Theory of Third-Degree Price Discrimination: A Brief Survey," Discussion papers e-22-006, Graduate School of Economics , Kyoto University.
    12. Maes, Sebastiaan & Malhotra, Raghav, 2024. "Robust Hicksian Welfare Analysis under Individual Heterogeneity," CRETA Online Discussion Paper Series 84, Centre for Research in Economic Theory and its Applications CRETA.
    13. Dami'an Vergara, 2022. "Minimum Wages and Optimal Redistribution," Papers 2202.00839, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2022.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    sufficient statistics; elasticities; welfare analysis; fiscal externality; structural approach; discrete reforms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D04 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Policy: Formulation; Implementation; Evaluation
    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H30 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - General

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