A New General Equilibrium Welfare Measure, with Application to Labor Income Taxes

In this paper we extend the Hicksian compensating variation welfare measure in two directions. First, we adjust the size of the compensating variation in order to account for the fact that the compensating transfers will result in changes in output, as well as in prices, because labor and, in dynamic models, capital will adjust in response to these transfers. Second, we extend the measure to a dynamic setting with possibly time non-separable preferences. We find that these considerations become more significant for the welfare cost of higher labor income taxes as one moves from static to dynamic models, to models with time non-separable preferences, and finally to models with uncertainty.

Strong Language: Mathew Carey, Sensibility, and the American State, 1819–1835

Mathew Carey promoted the high tariff as a political expression of humane sentiments that relieved American workers of the misery caused by low wages and unemployment. This made him an early example of a state-builder working outside the state itself, building ideological frames and using emotional appeals to promote the expansion of state capacity. Although other aspects of his protectionism appealed to the republican tradition, Carey meshed his sentimental appeal with the liberalism. Later reformers integrated sensibility with liberalism by reference to the rights of vulnerable parties, but Carey added an appeal to an enlightened self-interest that allowed American manufacturers to profit while protecting workers. Although he became a well-known advocate for the organized provision of social welfare, his continued opposition to the widespread distribution of outdoor relief also suggests that he viewed the policy as a circumscribed federal social-welfare measure providing work rather than direct aid.

Developing effective welfare measures for cattle

This chapter focuses on the performance characteristics a welfare measure should possess in order to be considered valid for the assessment of animal welfare. It presents a choice of validation measures that can be used to assess the welfare of cattle and discusses ways they can be collected in practice. The chapter also presents the various definitions of animal welfare and how these definitions can affect the measures that are chosen.