TY  - JOUR
AU  - Coate,Stephen
TI  - An Efficiency Approach to the Evaluation of Policy Changes
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 7316
PY  - 1999
Y2  - August 1999
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7316
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w7316.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Stephen Coate
Department of Economics
Cornell University
Uris Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853-7601
Tel: 607/255-1912
Fax: 215/573-2057
E-Mail: sc163@cornell.edu
AB  - This paper describes an efficiency approach to the evaluation of policy changes.  Rather than comparing the utility allocations that arise before and after a policy change is introduced, this approach evaluates a policy change by comparing it with other possible changes which might be made from the status quo.  The main merit of the approach is that it is founded on the Pareto criterion rather than on a distributional value judgement.  The paper provides a precise statement of the approach and applies it to a number of examples.  Some objections to the approach are also anticipated and discussed.
ER  -