Capital Wealth Inequality and Public Bads: A Mathematical Analysis

In A Future for Socialism (1994), John Roerrre'r argues that the highly unequal distribution of capital wealth under contemporary capitalism results in a level of public bads (e.g., environmental degradation) higher than that which would be preferred by the large majority of the population. This contention is examined using an alternative formal model, of arguably greater economic content and realism, from which the result is obtained that the household's share of capital property return has an uncertain effect on its preferred level of the public bad. In the CES special case, the effect of household capital wealth on its preferred level of public bad is determined by the elasticities of substitution in the production and utility functions.Distribution; Wealth; Inequality

The Equity-Efficiency Tradeoff under Capitalism and Market Socialism

This paper utilizes a simple general equilibrium tax policy model and empirical data on labor income and capital wealth distribution in the United States to examine the equity-efficiency tradeoff under capitalism and a specific variant of market socialism designated "pragmatic market socialism." Under this variant of market socialism, property return produced by a publicly owned, but commercially oriented, business enterprise sector would be distributed on the basis of labor income rather than financial capital ownership. Under arguably reasonable assumptions, the pragmatic market socialist economy would display both higher output and greater consumption equality than the equivalent capitalist economy.Capitalism; Socialism

Felony Murder and Capital Punishment: an Examination of the Deterrence Question

A proper test of the deterrent effect of the death penalty must consider capital homicides. However, the criterion variable in most investigations has been total homicides—most of which bear no legal or theoretical relationship to capital punishment. To address this fundamental data problem, this investigation used Federal Bureau of Investigation data for 1976–1987 to examine the relationship between capital punishment and felony murder, the most common type of capital homicide. We conducted time series analyses of monthly felony murder rates, the frequency of executions, and the amount and type of television coverage of executions over the period. The analyses revealed occasional departures (for vehicle theft and narcotics killings) from the null hypotheses. However, on balance, and in line with the vast majority of capital punishment studies, this investigation found no consistent evidence that executions and the television coverage they receive are associated significantly with rates for total, index, or different types of felony murder