We study how the distribution of income among members of society, and income inequality in particular, affects social willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental public goods. We find that social WTP for environmental goods increases with mean income, and decreases (increases) with income...

It is known that the incompleteness of asset markets causes inefficiency in almost every equilibrium. Yet unexplored is the ”size” of this inefficiency. The size of a Pareto improvement is the total willingness to pay for it, out of current consumption. Inefficiency is the maximum size of...

This work assesses the possibilities of including distributive considerations into cost-benefit analysis (CBA), it summarizes the favourable and contrary arguments existing in the literature, as well how it can be done. A survey is also carried out on how the topic is treated by agencies and...

This module illustrates how Generalised Lorenz (GL) Curves can be used to identify the best income distribution on social welfare grounds, within a set of alternative income distributions generated by different policy options, in many of the cases where ordinary Lorenz curves fail to work After...

The new realities cause that the economic policies head, more and more, towards highest levels of productivity and efficiency. It is also necessary to apply this general condition to an economic issue of vital importance as it is the income distribution. In this preliminary study of the...

In this paper, we analyse the Czech social and tax systems and their impact on income distribution. We use regular household surveys, organized and published by the Czech Statistical Office (CSO), for years 1999 - 2002. This longer time span allows us to identify some trends in the Czech social...

For any intransitive community preference, we construct a non-convex economy where all the marginal cost pricing general equilibria are Pareto inefficient (theorem 3.2). The result is valid without requiring a fixed income distribution rule (corollary 3.3). Intransitive community preferences are...

This survey summarises the insights that the new literature based on subjective data has shed on the issue of income inequality and income comparisons. It reviews the various channels that relate income distribution and subjective well-being. It considers the welfare effect of income gaps in...

In this paper, we analyze the Czech social and tax systems and their impact on income distribution. We use regular household surveys, organized and published by the Czech Statistical Office (CSO), for years 1999-2002. This longer time span allows us to identify some trends in the Czech social...

This paper explains how to build Lorenz Curves for income distributions and discusses their use for inequality measurement. A short conceptual background, a step-by-step procedure and a simple numerical example illustrate how to calculate and draw Lorenz Curves. A discussion on the use of Lorenz...