Striving for Equity and Efficiency

10.1596/30180 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Equity And Efficiency

Political Economy of Land Tax in Pakistan

1986 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 839-853
Author(s):  
Sarfraz Khan Qureshi
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Agricultural Produce ◽  
Finance Development ◽  
Equity And Efficiency ◽  
Formed Part

Taxation of the agricultural sector is a major instrument for mobilization of the surplus to finance development projects within the agricultural sector and/or the rest of the economy. For many years, the need for a heavier taxation of agricultural land has formed part of the conventional wisdom regarding the ways of extracting agricultural surplus and increasing the tempo of agricultural development in poor countries. Land taxes have both equity and efficiency properties that gladden the hearts of both economists and vocal politicians belonging to urban areas. Taxes on land promote efficiency in the allocation of scarce resources by creating incentives for farmers to increase their effort and reduce their consumption, thus expanding the amount of agricultural produce available to the non-agricultural sectors of the economy. A tax on land has an important redistributive function because its incidence falls squarely on the landlord and is shifted neither forward to consumers nor backwards to suppliers of agricultural inputs; nor does it introduce distortions in the allocation of productive resources.

The Labor Government's Industrial Relations Policy: Flexibility with Equity

1992 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Cook
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
International Markets ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Workplace Culture ◽  
Equity And Efficiency ◽  
The Government ◽  
Wage Increases

The fundamental objective of the Government's industrial relations policy is to encourage and assist Australian companies and their employees to adopt work and management practices that will strengthen their capacity to compete successfully both in domestic and international markets. To this end we support co-operative and equitable workplace bargaining, with wage increases being linked to the reform of work practices and attitudes. Our support for decentralised bargaining is aimed at improving productivity by fostering a new workplace culture of striving for continuous improvement. We emphatically reject the view that such an outcome will be achieved by wholesale deregulation and reliance on unfettered market forces. The Government is committed, for both equity and efficiency reasons, to maintaining the Accord approach to wages policy. We are also committed to an independent Australian Industrial Relations Commission playing the vital role of protecting lower paid employees through the safety net of minimum award wages and conditions.

scholarly journals Distributive Justice, Public Policies and the Comparison of Legal Rules: Quantify the “Price of Equity”

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Fabbri ◽  
Diogo GC Britto
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Social Welfare Function ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Quantitative Approach ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Aggregation Methods ◽  
Equity And Efficiency ◽  
Special Circumstances ◽  
Total Wealth

Abstract This paper proposes a quantitative approach to study two methodological problems arising when a costly redistribution of resources is implemented through public policies or legal rules: (a) aggregating individual into social preferences and (b) choosing the object of maximization. We consider a redistribution intervention that reduces inequality but diminishes total wealth and we specify a set of social welfare functions combining different preferences aggregation methods and maximands. For each social welfare function, we calculate its “price of equity”, defined as the maximum fraction of total wealth that a society is willing to sacrifice in order to implement the redistribution. Comparing the prices for equity across different social welfare function specifications, we identify systematic relationships and we rank them according to the efficiency-equity orientation. Results show that social welfare functions characterized by aggregation methods conventionally considered equity-oriented may reject redistribution interventions that are evaluated as welfare-improving by social welfare functions using efficiency-oriented aggregation methods. Similarly, social welfare functions considered equity-oriented because using utility as object of maximization may reject distributive policies that are evaluated as welfare-improving by social welfare functions using wealth as maximand. We argue that the quantitative approach proposed, by expounding the trade-off between equity and efficiency connected to different social welfare functions, may prove useful in areas of public law where policy-makers have to engage in the choice of a normative criterion for the evaluation of social welfare. Additionally, our results may inform rule-makers interested in comparing the distributive effects of alternative legal rules in special circumstances where private remedies can efficiently achieve redistribution goals.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document