IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-03h20001.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Merit goods and phantom agents

Author

Listed:
  • Bart Capéau

    (CES-KULeuven)

  • Erwin Ooghe

    (CES-KULeuven)

Abstract

Besley (1988) is one of the few exceptional articles containing non-welfarist optimal tax devices. Feehan (1990) reports an error in his first-best rules. The present note argues that Besley's second-best rules optimize the welfare of phantom agents rather than the corrected welfare of real existing agents in society.

Suggested Citation

  • Bart Capéau & Erwin Ooghe, 2003. "Merit goods and phantom agents," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 8(8), pages 1-5.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-03h20001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/pubs/EB/2003/Volume8/EB-03H20001A.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pazner, Elisha A, 1972. "Merit Wants and the Theory of Taxation," Public Finance = Finances publiques, , vol. 27(4), pages 460-472.
    2. Besley, Timothy, 1988. "A simple model for merit good arguments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 371-383, April.
    3. André DECOSTER & Erik SHCOKKAERT, 1989. "Equity and efficiency of a reform of Belgian indirect taxes," Discussion Papers (REL - Recherches Economiques de Louvain) 1989023, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    4. Feehan, James P., 1990. "A simple model for merit good arguments : A comment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 127-129, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elodie Brahic & Valérie Clément & Nathalie Moureau & Marion Vidal, 2008. "A la recherche des Merit Goods," Working Papers 08-08, LAMETA, Universtiy of Montpellier, revised Jun 2008.
    2. Fred Schroyen, 2003. "An alternative way to model merit good arguments," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 595.03, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    3. Schroyen, Fred, 2005. "An alternative way to model merit good arguments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(5-6), pages 957-966, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schroyen, Fred, 2005. "An alternative way to model merit good arguments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(5-6), pages 957-966, June.
    2. Ver Eecke, W., 2003. "Adam Smith and Musgrave's concept of merit good," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 701-720.
    3. Mazzanti, Massimiliano, 2002. "Cultural heritage as multi-dimensional, multi-value and multi-attribute economic good: toward a new framework for economic analysis and valuation," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 529-558.
    4. George Ladd, 1993. "InterpretingEconomic Justice for all as a pre-economic essay on merit wants," Forum for Social Economics, Springer;The Association for Social Economics, vol. 23(1), pages 59-75, September.
    5. Fred Schroyen, 2003. "An alternative way to model merit good arguments," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 595.03, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    6. Clément, Valérie & Moureau, Nathalie & Vidal, Marion, 2009. "À la recherche des biens sous tutelle," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 85(4), pages 383-401, décembre.
    7. Schnellenbach, Jan, 2012. "Nudges and norms: On the political economy of soft paternalism," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 266-277.
    8. Racionero, Maria del Mar, 2001. "Optimal Tax Mix with Merit Goods," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 53(4), pages 628-641, October.
    9. Francesca Medda, 2011. "Transport Accessibility as Merit Good," ERSA conference papers ersa10p1124, European Regional Science Association.
    10. Janet Currie & Firouz Gahvari, 2008. "Transfers in Cash and In-Kind: Theory Meets the Data," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 333-383, June.
    11. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:8:y:2003:i:8:p:1-5 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Ravi Kanbur & Jukka Pirttilä & Matti Tuomala, 2006. "Non‐Welfarist Optimal Taxation And Behavioural Public Economics," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(5), pages 849-868, December.
    13. Elodie Brahic & Valérie Clément & Nathalie Moureau & Marion Vidal, 2008. "A la recherche des Merit Goods," Working Papers 08-08, LAMETA, Universtiy of Montpellier, revised Jun 2008.
    14. Blomquist, Soren & Micheletto, Luca, 2006. "Optimal redistributive taxation when government's and agents' preferences differ," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(6-7), pages 1215-1233, August.
    15. Kaplanoglou, Georgia & Newbery, David Michael, 2003. "Indirect Taxation in Greece: Evaluation and Possible Reform," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 10(5), pages 511-533, September.
    16. König, Tobias & Lausen, Tobias, 2016. "Relative consumption preferences and public provision of private goods," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Market Behavior SP II 2016-213, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    17. Truyts, Tom, 2012. "Signaling and indirect taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(3), pages 331-340.
    18. Obara Takuya & Tsugawa Shuichi, 2019. "Public Good Provision Financed by Nonlinear Income Tax Under Reduction of Envy," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 19(4), pages 1-16, October.
    19. Olivier Bargain & Mathias Dolls & Dirk Neumann & Andreas Peichl & Sebastian Siegloch, 2011. "Tax-Benefit Systems in Europe and the US: Between Equity and Efficiency," CESifo Working Paper Series 3534, CESifo.
    20. Sandro Ambuehl & B. Douglas Bernheim & Axel Ockenfels, 2019. "Projective Paternalism," CESifo Working Paper Series 7762, CESifo.
    21. Maria Racionero, 2000. "Optimal Redistribution with Unobservable Preferences for an Observable Merit Good," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 7(4), pages 479-501, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    merit goods;

    JEL classification:

    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-03h20001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.