Ricerca di eccellenza

Over the past forty years or so, much effort has been directed toward studying welfare. Welfare-state economists, horrified by market failures, have commonly thought it necessary governments’ intervention in welfare programs. In their eagerness to combat the market, they have managed to write as though governments do not fail. Purely market-oriented economists dissociate from what they consider a harmful superstructure compounding market failures. The papers included in this symposium refuse to accept obsolescent positions and attempt to draw up an ordered account of the market-oriented position. From various angles, the six papers provide reflections on the role played by institutional settings in the decision of how and how much to redistribute within a generation and between generations.