Studies in the theory of welfare economics

In this book, the author attempt to explore some of the implications of the welfare theory as it has been developed in the last few years. The first four chapters contain a rather brief review of this development. They have no pretension of originality; should
the reader find anything in these chapters that he believes to be new, he may take it as prima facie evidence either of missing
some of the literature or of finding a mistake., it is necessary to provide this review because so much of the literature is scattered throughout the technical journals. Professor Lerner's excellent " Economics of Control" contains much of this material, but unfortunately he does not make explicit use of the" Compensation Principle," and as this principle is central to our treatment of the subject it is not always possible merely to refer the reader to the relevant section of Professor Lerner's book. Chapters V through VIII contain what the author believe to be some new developments in the theory of welfare economics on the " static" level.
Part II consists of a rather extensive sketch of a theory of dynamic economics. Chapter IX is, in one sense, not at all new. The treatments of Samuelson and Lange contain, in nuce, virtually the whole of this chapter. their work is highly mathematical and extremely condensed and therefore, the author dare to hope that the author have, in spelling it out and putting it in verbal form, made some contribution to the field. Chapters X through XII contain what are intended as original extensions of the theory expounded in Chapter IX. Chapter XIII applies this theory to welfare problems, and thus lays the groundwork for a dynamic theory of the welfare economics. With the exception of Chapter XIII, this whole section is in the nature of a rather extensive, although (the author hope) useful digression. In Part III the author analyze the concept of " full employment" in
the light of the welfare criterion. In doing so, the author have not altogether avoided the temptation to digress in order to com-
ment on the appropriate measures for achieving it. welfare,