Increasing Returns Public Goods And General Equilibrium Theory

Increasing returns to scale is an area in economics that has recently become the focus of much attention. While most firms operate under constant or decreasing return to scale on their relevant range of production, some firms produce goods or services with a technology which exhibits increasing returns to scale at levels of production which are large relative to the market. These goods are an important component of economic activity in a modern economy and are typically commodities produced either by a public sector or, as in the U.S., by regulated utilities. In this study, the author analyzes increasing returns using general equilibrium theory to take into account the interactions between production in the public and the private sector, and the effects of financing the public sector on the redistribution of income.

The introduction of public goods into economic theory has recently received substantial attention from economists. Both the increasing significance of public goods and the deficiencies of the private goods-oriented allocation mechanisms call for a re orientation of the classical general equilibrium models such as the one designed by Walras exactly a century ago. Although several approaches to this problem are possible, the duality approach seems to be very fruitful. In this study, Dr. Ruys applies and develops the mathematical theory of polarity to gain a deeper insight into the economic theory of value. He not only uses the duality approach to simplify formal proofs related to public goods, but he also gives an interpretation to the application of polarity operations which goes far, beyond its formal significance. This study is in a way closely related to the publication 'Axiomatic choice models' by Dr. H. N. Weddepohl, which is volume 3 of the Tilburg Studies on Economics.

The introduction of public goods into economic theory has recently received substantial attention from economists. Both the increasing significance of public goods and the deficiencies of the private goods-oriented allocation mechanisms call for a re orientation of the classical general equilibrium models such as the one designed by Walras exactly a century ago. Although several approaches to this problem are possible, the duality approach seems to be very fruitful. In this study, Dr. Ruys applies and develops the mathematical theory of polarity to gain a deeper insight into the economic theory of value. He not only uses the duality approach to simplify formal proofs related to public goods, but he also gives an interpretation to the application of polarity operations which goes far, beyond its formal significance. This study is in a way closely related to the publication 'Axiomatic choice models' by Dr. H. N. Weddepohl, which is volume 3 of the Tilburg Studies on Economics.

We analyze a general equilibrium model of a completely decentralized pure public good economy. Competitive firms using private goods as inputs produce the public good, which is privately provided by households. Previous studies on private provision of public goods typically use one private good, one public good models in which the public good is produced through a constant returns to scale technology. Two distinguishing features of our model are the presence of several private goods and non-linear, in fact strictly concave, production technology for the public good. In this more general framework we revisit the question of neutrality of government interventions on private provision equilibrium outcomes. We show that relative price effects, which are absent with a single private good and under constant returns to scale technology for public good production, come to play an important role in our more general framework. Relative price effects provide a powerful channel through which government interventions can bring about redistributive wealth effects, which, in turn, will change equilibrium outcomes. While we confirm that the neutrality result holds for small taxes that involve only the contributing households, we show that contrary to what was shown in the one private good, linear production technology framework, a redistribution in favor of contributors is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition to increase the level of privately provided public good. In particular, redistributions involving non-contributors only (i.e., without either subsidizing or taxing any contributor) can increase, or decrease, or leave unchanged the public good level. Even taxing a contributor and subsidizing non-contributors can move the public good level in any direction.

This study analyzes increasing returns to scale using general equilibrium theory to take into account the interactions between production in the public and private sectors. It also explores how the redistribution of income has been effected by financing the private sector.

We prove existence and generic regularity of equilibria in a general equilibrium model of a completely decentralized pure public good economy. Competitive firms using private goods as inputs produce the public good, which is privately provided by households. Previous studies on private provision of public goods typically use one private good, one public good models in which the public good is produced through a constant returns to scale technology. Two distinguishing features of our model are the presence of several private goods and non-linear, in fact strictly concave, production technology for the public good. In that framework, we use a homotopy argument to prove existence of equilibria and we show that economies are generically regular.

This is a new kind of textbook in microeconomic theory. In place of the usual concentration on partial equilibrium analysis and discussion of a standard series of topics, the authors seek to introduce the student from the start to the general equilibrium approach to microeconomics, in the form of the two-sector model. This model is then applied to a variety of subjects in different special fields of economic analysis: welfare economics, international trade, public finance and income distribution. This book represents a very different approach to the teaching of micro-economic theory than normally followed, and one that will be of greater long-run value to the serious student of economics. In place of the usual textbook development of the subject as traditionally conceived through topics of increasing complexity and analytical difficulty, using partial equilibrium techniques of analysis, the book concentrates on the exposition and application of a more logically integrated set of tools that have been found of greater use in the analysis of problems arising not only in traditional micro-economics but also in a number of fields of economics that have customarily been hived off into separate specialized advanced courses. General Equilibrium Analysis starts with the description of the two-sector model and how these two sectors are built based on the individual micro-units in which they made up of and how they fit into the concept of the circular flow of income. Subsequent chapters deal with the evaluation of changes in factor endowment, demand preferences and technical progress by means of the model; and the theory of government, which includes both the theory of government expenditure, or public goods, and the theory of government tax and/or subsidy programmes-changes in budgetary scale, tax substitution and expenditure substitution. The model is then extended to an open economy-the so-called "two by two by two"--to consider both the normative effect of inte

This book reports the authors' research on one of the most sophisticated general equilibrium models designed for tax policy analysis. Significantly disaggregated and incorporating the complete array of federal, state, and local taxes, the model represents the U.S. economy and tax system in a large computer package. The authors consider modifications of the tax system, including those being raised in current policy debates, such as consumption-based taxes and integration of the corporate and personal income tax systems. A counterfactual economy associated with each of these alternatives is generated, and the possible outcomes are compared.