Government Failure versus Market Failure: Microeconomics Policy Research and Government Performance / Edition 1

by Clifford Winston

Overview

"When should government intervene in market activity and when is it best to let market forces take their natural course? How does the existing empirical evidence about government performance guide our answers to these questions? In this clear, concise book, Clifford Winston offers his innovative analysis—shaped by thirty years of evidence—to assess the efficacy of government interventions. Markets fail when it is possible to make one person better off without making someone else worse off, thus indicating inefficiency. Governments fail when an intervention is unwarranted because markets are performing well or when the intervention fails to correct a market problem efficiently. Winston concludes from existing research that the cost of government failure may actually be considerably greater than the cost of market failure: "My search of the evidence is not limited to policy failures. I will report success stories, but few of them emerged from my search." The prevalence of market failure is due to a lack of conviction in favor of markets, the inflexibility of intervening government agencies, and political forces that enable certain interest groups to benefit at the expense of society as a whole. Winston suggests that government policy can be improved by making greater use of market-oriented solutions that have already produced benefits in certain situations.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815793892
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/26/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	146
Product dimensions:	6.03(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.37(d)

About the Author

Clifford Winston is a senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. Among his previous books are Deregulation of Network Industries: What's Next? coedited with Sam Peltzman (AEI-Brookings, 2000), and Alternate Route: Toward Efficient Urban Transportation, cowritten with Chad Shirley (Brookings, 1998).

Table of Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. Methodological Perspective
3. Market Power: Antitrust Policy and Economic Regulation
4. Social Regulation: Imperfect Information and Externalities
5. Public Production
6. Policies to Correct Market Failures: Synthesis and Assessment
7. Market Failure and Social Goals Policies: Common Failures and Conflicts
8. Policy Recommendations Motivated by Policymakers' Learning
9. Microeconomics Policy Research and the Policy Community
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

" Government Failure versus Market Failure is a remarkable little book. In it, Clifford Winston aggregates the lessons of dozens of scholarly empirical literatures on the efficiency of regulation, yet reaches an easy-to-summarize conclusion: regulation fails the cost-benefit test, with the exception of regulations against glaring externalities." —Bryan Caplan, Constitutional Political Economy

"An extremely valuable work that will reward careful readers. Communications policymakers should heed their lessons....Some twelve years after the Telecommunications Act of 1996, telecommunications policy is marked by extensive regulation... Government Failure versus Market Failure offers important lessons for how such reform should be implemented. Those charged with drafting and implementing it would do well to consult this volume." — Federal Communication Law Journal

"For those in government who are willing to listen, Government Failure versus Market Failure explains why much of what is being done for the public weal does not work well and, in some instances, does harm. For those in academia who are looking for a way to spice up their policy, government, and public administration courses, Government Failure versus Market Failure likely would prove to be an excellent vehicle for sparking spirited classroom debates." —Kevin R. Kosar, Public Administration Review

From the Publisher

"This authoritative and readable monograph provides much-needed balance in the implicit debate between those who hold that the public interest requires extensive government economic intervention and the position that free markets automatically solve all problems. Legislators and economists have focused on needs for intervention, but Winston shows that it sometimes does more harm than good, and its favored methods can be fonts of inefficiency."
William J. Baumol, Berkley Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, NYU