Non-global social contracts: A note on inefficient social institutions

Robert Blewett and Roger Congleton

Public Choice, 1983, vol. 41, issue 3, 448 pages

Abstract: This paper explores some perverse features that can emerge when social contracts are moved from a social vacuum to a setting of social interdependence. In particular we note incentives that might exist in conjunction with externality problems that yield situations in which: (1) social contracts reduce social wealth; (2) sub-global social contracts are Pareto inferior to the absence of social contracts; (3) there are no incentives for global social contracts. While previous works emphasized the benefits of contracts, this paper focuses on their costs. A conclusion reached is that perhaps justice and efficiency demand not a single global social contract but rather a rich melange of sub-global contracts with appropriate interstices of anarchy. Copyright Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1983

Date: 1983
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DOI: 10.1007/BF00141077

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