Biographical Memoirs Volume 75 (1998) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
William S. Vickrey
William S. Vickrey
Pages 404-424
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 405... ...
late recognition are unmistakable traits of a truly remarkable career clevotec! to economics in the service of the public sector.
|
From page 406... ...
there in 1947 after completion of the "Agenda for Progressive Taxation," his 496-page cloctoral dissertation incluclec! in 1972 among the Reprints of Economic Classics.
|
From page 407... ...
Irrational budget accounting, excessive concern with inflation, en c! insufficient attention to wasteful unemployment hac!
|
From page 408... ...
incentives reflecting correctly common values. In relatively simple situations, competitive prices for commodities (goods and services)
|
From page 409... ...
. Decreasing marginal costs leac!
|
From page 410... ...
He investigated the prospect for implementing the so-called utilitarian approach outlined by Francis Edgeworth in 1897.5 Assume that the benefits of a higher real income could be measured by a function of income, labeled utility. Edgeworth posed the problem of income taxation as that of maximizing, through taxes and transfers, the total utility derived by a population from a given fixed aggregate income.
|
From page 411... ...
by the Swoclish Academy: Vickrey's analysis emphasized that a progressive tax schedule would affect individuals' incentives to exert themselves. He therefore reformulated the problem with respect to both incentive problems that each individual takes the tax schedule into account when choosing his work effort and asymmetric information, that in practice, the productivity of individuals is not known to the government.9 Vickrey formulates!
|
From page 412... ...
Other researchers have later developed analogous principles, for example in order to elicit the true willingness to pay for public projects. Thus, Vickrey's analysis has not only been momentous for the theory of auctions; it has also conveyed fundamental insights into the design of resource allocation mechanisms aimed at providing socially desirable incentives.~° Recent years have witnesses!
|
From page 413... ...
best analysis (i.e., minimizing the cleacI-weight burden of taxation) , whereas equity goes straight to the ethical roots of social choice theory.
|
From page 414... ...
space or in response to imperfectly foreseen circumstances, decreasing marginal costs or heterogeneous production complicate matters. Marginal cost pricing then becomes a subtle art, calling for skillful application of theoretical guiclelines.
|
From page 415... ...
Evaluation of the SRMSC lee! him to suggest replacing the prevailing 15-cent flat fare with an efficient set of fares varying from 5 cents to 25 cents according to time of clay en c!
|
From page 416... ...
Arnott as "almost certainly the most important in urban transport economics over the last quarter century."~7 That paper moclels the dynamics of rush-hour congestion by treating the departure-time decisions of commuters as enclogenous variables. The extenclec!
|
From page 417... ...
electricity, but also water sup P~Y In 1963 Vickrey published a first paper on pricing and financing of urban services, such as fire protection, water provision, parks en c! recreational facilities, en c!
|
From page 418... ...
be clear from the foregoing that his work combine depth en c! breadth depth, by grounding specific research firmly in the theory of economic efficiency (leacling, for instance, to a correct definition of SRMSC)
|
From page 419... ...
IncleecI, creative theoretical work is often proclucec! by researchers primarily interested!
|
From page 420... ...
in the citation presenting him as a clistinguishec! fellow of the American Economic Association in 1978: Many of us have had the experience of thinking we were the first to show the neutrality of a particular tax scheme, to prove the incentive characteristics of a particular bidding institution, to deduce the redistributive implications of the expected utility hypothesis, to invent a demand revealing process, and so on, only to find that William S
|
From page 421... ...
Research and development in public economics: William Vickrey's inventive quest of efficiency. Scand.
|
From page 422... ...
New York: Ronald Press. 1948 Some objections to marginal cost pricing.
|
From page 423... ...
59:25160. 1970 Defining land values for taxation purposes.
|
From page 424... ...
1978 Application of demand revealing procedures to international disputes. Peace Sci.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.