Equity and Choice by Le Grand, Julian;

Short description:

The meaning of an equitable or just distribution of resources: the author examines the concepts used by economists and philosophers and suggests a new formulation founded on individual choice, backing it up with policy proposals.

Long description:

Offering a new answer to an age-old problem: the meaning of a just or equitable distribution of resources, Julian Le Grand examines the principal interpretations of equity used by economists and political philosophers. He argues that none captures the essence of the term as well as an alternative conception relating equity to the existence or otherwise of individual choice.

Le Grand shows that this conception is not only philosophically well-grounded but is also directly relevant to key areas of distributional policy. His theoretical argument is complemented by detailed discussion of the application of the central idea to specific areas of policy, including the distribution of health and health care, central government grants to local governments and the measurement of income for tax purposes.

Equity and Choice is written by an economist, but is intended for political philosophers and social policy analysts as well as economists. Hence the key chapters are written in a non-technical fashion, with specialized material relegated to appendices. This book is a unique combination of philosophical, economic and policy analysis and represents a major contribution in all three areas.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgements, 1. Introduction, 2. Some preliminaries, 3. Equity versus efficiency: the elusive trade-off, 4. Methods of approach, 5. Economic conceptions of equity, 6. Equity and choice, 7. Equity, health and health care, 8. Equity and grants to local governments, 9. Equity, the measurement of choice sets and income taxation, 10. Afterword, References