Types of Welfare/Efficiency Interactions

Abstract

That increases in welfare are intended to yield beneficial results is a truism. They do so in a great many cases, and the improvements that result are usually obvious and well-known. In contrast, the unexpected costs and unanticipated adverse effects of welfare increases are by their nature generally unknown or may be deliberately ignored. For this reason, greater attention is devoted in this chapter to the adverse than to the beneficial effects. It must be emphasized, however, that this disproportionate treatment does not imply that the positive results of welfare increases are in any sense unimportant.