Public Economics
Selected Papers by William Vickrey

This book provides convenient access to a selection of Nobel prizewinner William Vickrey's papers, which have helped shape the modern field of public economics.

William Vickrey (Author), Richard Arnott (Edited by), Anthony B. Atkinson (Edited by), Kenneth Arrow (Edited by), Jacques H. Drèze (Edited by)

9780521597630, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 February 1997

572 pages, 1 b/w illus. 24 tables
24.7 x 17.4 x 3.2 cm, 0.99 kg

'Bill Vickrey is an economist's economist; not only an original and creative theorist but, wonder of wonders, inventor of brilliant ways of applying those theories. While many difficult selection choices had to be made, the best known of Vickrey's pieces - including, for example, the famous 'Counterspeculation, auctions …', 'Some objections to marginal cost pricing' articles, and the remarkable ' … New York's subway fare structure' proposal - are all here together with a fine sampling of other valuable contributions. The volume also contains helpful introductions, by an all-star cast of economists, to all the major categories of Vickrey's professional work.' Jack Hirshleifer, University of California, Los Angeles

Nobel Prize winner the late William Vickrey was one of the truly important figures in contemporary economics. Over the past fifty-five years he has published several books and some 140 papers scattered over many journals. This book offers a thoughtful selection from these papers, organised so as to bring out the scope and yet the unity of the work. Vickrey has the unique distinction of having contributed, often seminally and always operationally, to all major branches of public economics. The papers collected here cover social choice and allocation mechanisms, taxation, pricing in public utilities and in urban transportation, urban economics, and macroeconomic policies. Each topic is introduced by one of the four editors, and the book is completed with a full annotated bibliography of Vickrey's work. For the first time, we have convenient access to a set of important, creative and stimulating contributions, which have helped shape the modern field of public economics. This is a fascinating overview of the field and of the life-time work of a great economist.

Introduction: William Vickrey Jacques Drèze and Richard Arnott
Part I. Social Choice and Allocation Mechanisms: Introduction Kenneth Arrow
1. Measuring marginal utility by reactions to risk
2. Utility, strategy and social decision rules
3. Counterspeculation, auctions and competitive sealed tenders
4. Auctions and bidding games
Part II. Taxation: Introduction Anthony Atkinson
5. Averaging of income for income tax purposes
6. Cumulative averaging after thirty years
7. An integrated successions tax
8. Expenditure, capital gains and the basis of progressive taxation
9. The problems of progression
Part III. Marginal Cost Pricing: Introduction Jacques Drèze
10. Marginal and average cost pricing
11. Some objections to marginal cost pricing
12. Responsive pricing of public utility services
13. Airline overbooking: some further solutions
Part IV. Pricing Urban Transportation: Introduction Richard Arnott
14. A proposal for revising New York's subway fare structure
15. Pricing in urban and suburban transport
16. Congestion theory and transport investment
Part V. Urban Economics: Introduction Richard Arnott
17. The city as a firm
18. General and specific financing of urban services
19. The impact on land values of taxing building
Part VI. Macroeconomic Policy: Introduction Jacques Drèze
20. The optimum trend of prices
21. Design as a market anti-inflation program
22. Necessary and optimum government debt
23. Today's tasks for economists
Part VII. Miscellany: Introduction Richard Arnott
24. Resources distribution patterns and the classification of families
25. On the prevention of gerrymandering
26. One economist's view of philanthropy
Bibliography of William Vickrey.

Subject Areas: Economics [KC]