Aggregate Deadweight Loss and Money Metric Social Welfare

Daniel T Slesnick

International Economic Review, 1991, vol. 32, issue 1, 123-46

Abstract: An econometric approach to the measurement of aggregate deadweight loss is proposed that does not require restrictive assumptions about preferences for validity. The measure can be interpreted as the loss in allocative efficiency and is independent of the distribution of individual welfare. An approach that is pervasive in the literature is to sum the individual measures of deadweight loss and interpret the resulting index as a measure of social welfare. The author shows that this approach is invalid unless individual preferences or the social ordering are severely restricted. An alternative method of evaluating money metric social welfare that does not require these restrictions is presented. Copyright 1991 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.

Date: 1991
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