IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/pubcho/v114y2003i3-4p253-73.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the Public Choice Critique of Welfare Economics

Author

Listed:
  • Besley, Timothy
  • Coate, Stephen

Abstract

The public choice literature urges the welfare economist to anticipate how political forces will shape the levels of new policy instruments when government intervenes in a new way. This paper argues that the welfare economist should also recognize that new interventions may impact the politically determined levels of existing policy instruments. It shows how the introduction of a new instrument can lead to shifts in political coalitions or compromises in existing areas of conflict that can produce significant changes in existing policies. Such spillover effects can provide new arguments for introducing particular policy interventions. Even a policy instrument without an obvious welfare economic rationale can change voter coalitions and shift the policy equilibrium in a welfare improving direction. Copyright 2003 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

Suggested Citation

  • Besley, Timothy & Coate, Stephen, 2003. "On the Public Choice Critique of Welfare Economics," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 114(3-4), pages 253-273, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:114:y:2003:i:3-4:p:253-73
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://journals.kluweronline.com/issn/0048-5829/contents
    File Function: link to full text
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Ho, Shirley J., 2007. "Impacts of interest groups: Endogenous interaction and lobbying limits," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 506-522, May.
    2. Livani, Talajeh & Graham, Carol, 2019. "Do social protection programs improve life satisfaction? Evidence from Iraq," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).
    3. Goulão, Catarina, 2014. "Voluntary Public Health Insurance," TSE Working Papers 14-488, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    4. Catarina Goulão, 2015. "Voluntary public health insurance," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 162(1), pages 135-157, January.
    5. J. Peter Clinch & Eoin O'Neill, 2010. "Assessing the Relative Merits of Development Charges and Transferable Development Rights in an Uncertain World," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(4), pages 891-911, April.
    6. Salvatore Barbaro & Jens Suedekum, 2009. "Voting on income tax exemptions," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 138(1), pages 239-253, January.
    7. Kanbur, Ravi, 2004. "Growth, Inequality And Poverty: Some Hard Questions," Working Papers 127133, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    8. Raul V. Fabella & Vigile Marie Fabella, 2015. "Re-Thinking Market Failure in the Light of the Imperfect State," UP School of Economics Discussion Papers 201506, University of the Philippines School of Economics.
    9. Lahiri, Radhika & Ratnasiri, Shyama, 2013. "Costly technology adoption, redistribution and growth," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 440-449.

    More about this item

    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:kap:pubcho:v:114:y:2003:i:3-4:p:253-73. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.