Some Empirical Evidence on the Social Welfare Maximization Hypothesis

James A Yunker

Public Finance = Finances publiques, 1989, vol. 44, issue 1, 110-33

Abstract: Evidence is presented that suggests that the concept of social welfare maximization, always heretofore considered part of normative economics, may possess positive content. A simple, but comprehensive, general equilibrium model of the U.S. economy is developed and numerically implemented. According to the simple model, the aggregate average tax rate that maximizes the Benthamite (sum of utilities) social welfare criterion is 0.39. For a Nash (product of utilities) social welfare criterion, the corresponding optimal tax rate is 0.42. These values are quite close to the aggregate average tax rate currently prevailing in the United States.

Date: 1989
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pfi:pubfin:v:44:y:1989:i:1:p:110-33

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Public Finance = Finances publiques
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().