Government Failure versus Market Failure or Violence against Women

Government Failure versus Market Failure

Author: Clifford Winston

When should government intervene in market activity? When is it best to let market forces simply take their natural course? How does existing empirical evidence about government performance inform those decisions? Brookings economist Clifford Winston uses these questions to frame a frank empirical assessment of government economic intervention in Government Failure vs. Market Failure: Microeconomics Policy Research and Government Performance.

Markets "fail" when it is possible to make one person better off without making someone else worse off, thus indicating some degree of inefficiency. In economics parlance, Pareto optimality has not been achieved. On the other hand, governments "fail" when an economic intervention proves to be unwarranted, either because markets are performing adequately or public policy does not correct a market failure efficiently. In such cases, government intervention may actually exacerbate a problem or produce unintended negative results. Winston concludes 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." Government failure may result in missed opportunities, wasted resources, and waning public support.

The author, a well-respected economist who edited the Brookings Papers on Microeconomic Activity, calls for more economics research that is geared to questions of public policy: "The economics profession should encourage a broader range as well as different styles of research by giving more respect to high-quality policy studies on specific and perhaps small issues that accumulate in importance." He cites evidence that inefficient microeconomics policies are of vital importance because they are a drag on growth and development.

"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

Table of Contents:

Foreword

See also: Connective Leadership or The Medical Malpractice Myth

Violence Against Women: Philosophical Perspectives

Author: Stanley G French

This is the first anthology to take a theoretical look at violence against women. Each essay shows how philosophy provides a powerful tool for examining a difficult and deep-rooted social problem. Stanley G. French, Wanda Teays, and Laura M. Purdy, all philosophers, present a familiar phenomenon in a new and striking fashion.

The editors employ a two-tiered approach to this vital issue. Contributors consider both interpersonal violence, such as rape and battering; and also systemic violence, such as sexual harassment, pornography, prostitution, and violence in a medical context. The editors have further broadened the discussion to include such cross-cultural issues as rape in war, dowry deaths, female genital mutilation, and international policies on violence against women. Against this wide range of topics, which integrate personal perspectives with the philosophical, the contributors offer powerful analyses of the causes and effects of violence against women, as well as potential policies for effecting change.