IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/cesptp/halshs-00543296.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Government and the provision of public goods : from equilibrium models to mechanism design

Author

Listed:
  • Monique Florenzano

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

Abstract

Focusing on their analysis of the optimal public goods provision problem, this paper follows the parallel development of equilibrium models and mechanism design after the accomodation of Samuelson's definition of collective goods to the general equilibrium framework. Both paradigms lead to the negative conclusion of the impossibility of a fully decentralized optimal public goods provision through market or market-like institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Monique Florenzano, 2010. "Government and the provision of public goods : from equilibrium models to mechanism design," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00543296, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00543296
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00543296
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00543296/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Groves, Theodore & Ledyard, John O, 1977. "Optimal Allocation of Public Goods: A Solution to the "Free Rider" Problem," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(4), pages 783-809, May.
    2. James, Estelle, 1971. "Joint Products, Collective Goods, and External Effects: Comment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(5), pages 1129-1135, Sept.-Oct.
    3. Vasil'ev, Valery & Wiesmeth, Hans, 2008. "Equilibrium in a mixed economy of arrow-debreu type," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 132-147, January.
    4. E. Malinvaud, 1972. "Prices for Individual Consumption, Quantity Indicators for Collective Consumption," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 39(4), pages 385-405.
    5. Green, Jerry & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1977. "Characterization of Satisfactory Mechanisms for the Revelation of Preferences for Public Goods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(2), pages 427-438, March.
    6. Erik Lindahl, 1958. "Some Controversial Questions in the Theory of Taxation," International Economic Association Series, in: Richard A. Musgrave & Alan T. Peacock (ed.), Classics in the Theory of Public Finance, pages 214-232, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Groves, Theodore & Ledyard, John O, 1980. "The Existence of Efficient and Incentive Compatible Equilibria with Public Goods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(6), pages 1487-1506, September.
    8. Monique Florenzano, 2009. "Walras-Lindahl-Wicksell: What equilibrium concept for public goods provision ? I - The convex case," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00367867, HAL.
    9. L. Hurwicz, 1979. "Outcome Functions Yielding Walrasian and Lindahl Allocations at Nash Equilibrium Points," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 46(2), pages 217-225.
    10. Groves, Theodore & Loeb, Martin, 1975. "Incentives and public inputs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 211-226, August.
    11. Green, Jerry & Laffont, Jean-Jacques, 1977. "On the revelation of preferences for public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 79-93, August.
    12. Villanacci, Antonio & Zenginobuz, E.Unal, 2005. "Existence and regularity of equilibria in a general equilibrium model with private provision of a public good," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(4-5), pages 617-636, August.
    13. John A. Weymark, 2004. "Shared Consumption : A Technological Analysis," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 75-76, pages 175-195.
    14. Walker, Mark, 1980. "On the Nonexistence of a Dominant Strategy Mechanism for Making Optimal Public Decisions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(6), pages 1521-1540, September.
    15. George J. Mailath & Andrew Postlewaite, 1990. "Asymmetric Information Bargaining Problems with Many Agents," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(3), pages 351-367.
    16. Cornet, Bernard, 1988. "General equilibrium theory and increasing returns : Presentation," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2-3), pages 103-118, April.
    17. Silvestre, Joaquim, 1984. "Voluntariness and efficiency in the provision of public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 249-256, July.
    18. Gerard Debreu, 1963. "On a Theorem of Scarf," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 30(3), pages 177-180.
    19. d'Aspremont, Claude & Gerard-Varet, Louis-Andre, 1979. "Incentives and incomplete information," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 25-45, February.
    20. Agnar Sandmo, 1973. "Public Goods and the Technology of Consumption," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 40(4), pages 517-528.
    21. Danziger, Leif & Schnytzer, Adi, 1991. "Implementing the Lindahl voluntary-exchange mechanism," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 55-64, April.
    22. J. v. Neumann, 1945. "A Model of General Economic Equilibrium," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9.
    23. Knut Wicksell, 1958. "A New Principle of Just Taxation," International Economic Association Series, in: Richard A. Musgrave & Alan T. Peacock (ed.), Classics in the Theory of Public Finance, pages 72-118, Palgrave Macmillan.
    24. Leonid Hurwicz, 2008. "But Who Will Guard the Guardians?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(3), pages 577-585, June.
    25. Andreu Mas-Colell, 1980. "Efficiency and Decentralization in the Pure Theory of Public Goods," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(4), pages 625-641.
    26. Wayne Shafer & Hugo Sonnenschein, 1976. "Equilibrium with Externalities," Discussion Papers 145, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    27. Bergstrom, Theodore C., 1970. "A "Scandinavian consensus" solution for efficient income distribution among nonmalevolent consumers," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 383-398, December.
    28. Murty, Sushama, 2010. "Externalities and fundamental nonconvexities: A reconciliation of approaches to general equilibrium externality modeling and implications for decentralization," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(1), pages 331-353, January.
    29. Sontheimer, Kevin C., 1971. "An existence theorem for the second best," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 1-22, March.
    30. Kyu Sang Lee, 2006. "Mechanism Design Theory Embodying an Algorithm-Centered Vision of Markets/Organizations/Institutions," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 38(5), pages 283-304, Supplemen.
    31. Foley, Duncan K, 1970. "Lindahl's Solution and the Core of an Economy with Public Goods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 38(1), pages 66-72, January.
    32. M. Ali Khan & Rajiv Vohra, 1987. "An Extension of the Second Welfare Theorem to Economies with Nonconvexities and Public Goods," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 102(2), pages 223-241.
    33. Edward Clarke, 1971. "Multipart pricing of public goods," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 17-33, September.
    34. repec:adr:anecst:y:2004:i:75-76:p:09 is not listed on IDEAS
    35. Milleron, Jean-Claude, 1972. "Theory of value with public goods: A survey article," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 419-477, December.
    36. Boiteux, M., 1971. "On the management of public monopolies subject to budgetary constraints," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 219-240, September.
    37. Monique Florenzano, 2009. "Walras-Lindahl-Wicksell: What equilibrium concept for public goods provision," Working Papers halshs-00531434, HAL.
    38. Joaquim Silvestre, 2003. "Wicksell, Lindahl and the Theory of Public Goods," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 105(4), pages 527-553, December.
    39. Bergstrom, Theodore & Blume, Lawrence & Varian, Hal, 1986. "On the private provision of public goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 25-49, February.
    40. Shafer, Wayne & Sonnenschein, Hugo, 1976. "Equilibrium with Externalities, Commodity Taxation, and Lump Sum Transfers," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 17(3), pages 601-611, October.
    41. Bonnisseau, Jean-Marc, 1991. "Existence of Lindahl equilibria in economies with nonconvex production sets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 409-416, August.
    42. Guesnerie, Roger, 1975. "Pareto Optimality in Non-Convex Economies," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 43(1), pages 1-29, January.
    43. Mantel, Rolf R., 1975. "General equilibrium and optimal taxes," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 187-200.
    44. Hurwicz, Leonid & Walker, Mark, 1990. "On the Generic Nonoptimality of Dominant-Strategy Allocation Mechanisms: A General Theorem That Includes Pure Exchange Economies," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(3), pages 683-704, May.
    45. Groves, Theodore, 1973. "Incentives in Teams," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 41(4), pages 617-631, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Oghenovo A. Obrimah, 2023. "Policy-speak evidence that each of Pareto efficient competition and transfer payments are necessary conditions for first-best progressions to welfare," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(8), pages 1-30, August.
    2. Yahya Madra & Fikret Adaman, 2013. "Neoliberal reason and its forms:Depoliticization through economization," Working Papers 2013/07, Bogazici University, Department of Economics.
    3. Yevgeniy Popov, 2018. "Econotronics," Economy of region, Centre for Economic Security, Institute of Economics of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, vol. 1(1), pages 13-28.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Monique Florenzano, 2009. "From equilibrium models to mechanism design: On the place and the role of government in the public goods provision analysis in the second part of the twentieth century," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00367859, HAL.
    2. Monique Florenzano, 2009. "Walras-Lindahl-Wicksell: What equilibrium concept for public goods provision," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00531434, HAL.
    3. Monique Florenzano, 2009. "Walras-Lindahl-Wicksell: What equilibrium concept for public goods provision ? I - The convex case," Post-Print halshs-00367867, HAL.
    4. Ledyard, John O., "undated". "Public Goods: A Survey of Experimental Research," Working Papers 861, California Institute of Technology, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
    5. Clark Robinson & Gerry Suchanek, 1985. "On the design of optimal mechanisms for the Arrow-Hahn-McKenzie economy," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 313-335, January.
    6. Tian, Guoqiang, 1997. "Virtual implementation in incomplete information environments with infinite alternatives and types," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 313-339, October.
    7. Maskin, Eric & Sjostrom, Tomas, 2002. "Implementation theory," Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare, in: K. J. Arrow & A. K. Sen & K. Suzumura (ed.), Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 5, pages 237-288, Elsevier.
    8. Maniquet, François & Sprumont, Yves, 2010. "Sharing the cost of a public good: An incentive-constrained axiomatic approach," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 275-302, January.
    9. Manimay Sengupta, 1996. "Informed Planner, Decentralized Decisions And Incentive Compatibility," Discussion Paper Series 12, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University, revised Oct 1996.
    10. McFadden, Daniel, 2012. "Economic juries and public project provision," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 166(1), pages 116-126.
    11. Vitalik Buterin & Zoë Hitzig & E. Glen Weyl, 2019. "A Flexible Design for Funding Public Goods," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(11), pages 5171-5187, November.
    12. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Martimort, David, 2005. "The design of transnational public good mechanisms for developing countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2-3), pages 159-196, February.
    13. John O. Ledyard, 1978. "The Allocation of Public Goods with Sealed-Bid Auctions: Some Preliminary Evaluations," Discussion Papers 336, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    14. Makowski, Louis & Ostroy, Joseph M. & Segal, Uzi, 1999. "Efficient Incentive Compatible Economies Are Perfectly Competitive," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 169-225, April.
    15. Charles Laine, 1985. "Distribution of jointly owned private goods by the demand-revealing process: Applications to divorce settlements and estate administration," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 437-457, January.
    16. W D A Bryant, 2009. "General Equilibrium:Theory and Evidence," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 6875, August.
    17. Dilip Mookherjee, 2008. "The 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Mechanism Design Theory," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 110(2), pages 237-260, June.
    18. Nicolaus Tideman & Florenz Plassmann, 2017. "Efficient collective decision-making, marginal cost pricing, and quadratic voting," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 172(1), pages 45-73, July.
    19. John E. Roemer & Joaquim Silvestre, 2023. "Kant and Lindahl," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 125(2), pages 517-548, April.
    20. , J. & ,, 2012. "Designing stable mechanisms for economic environments," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 7(3), September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Lindahl-Foley equilibrium; Wicksell-Foley equilibrium; private provision equilibrium; free-rider problem; mechanism design; incentive compatibility; principal-agent models; Equilibre de Lindahl; équilibre public compétitif; équilibre de provision privée; problème du passager clandestin; théorie des mécanismes; modèles de principal-agent;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B20 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - General
    • B21 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Microeconomics
    • H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00543296. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.