Letter to a Younger Generation

This paper has the purpose of transmitting to the younger generation of economists some insights and judgments that seem to have been bypassed or overlooked as the literature of the economics profession has evolved. In the main, the paper tries to explain what is "The right place" within economics to employ particular sets of assumptions or methods. Where is the use of the representative consumer appropriate, and where not? What is the "natural" range of application for overlapping generation models? When is it appropriate to treat the capital flow to (or from) a country as infinitely elastic with respect to the interest rate? These and other questions will be pursued, with the objective of alerting the younger generations to important decisions they have to make as they strive to keep economic science robust, relevant and helpful in improving the economic life of real-world populations.

Reflections On Distributional Considerations and the Public Finances

The plan of this paper is first, to examine some evidence on the distribution of the tax burden among income groups in a few countries. Second, we will extend this analysis to cover the "allocable" parts of government expenditures. The broad conclusion to emerge from these two exercises is that on the whole, tax and expenditure policy can plausibly have only a modest influence on a country's distribution of income, with expenditure policy being the more potent of the two.Working Paper Number 04-41

Reflexões sobre o sistema de distribuição de renda em países menos desenvolvidos

Este relatório está longe de constituir uma pesquisa ou estudo exaustivo sobre o assunto. Representa antes um esforço no sentido de observar o problema de distribuição de renda em perspectiva, em uma tentativa de isolar as linhas de pensamento e pesquisa que prometem ser mais proveitosas, com relação aos recursos dedicados a isto