Income Redistribution
“Income Redistribution” contains the edited proceedings of a May 1976 conference sponsored jointly by the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University. The purpose of this conference was to bring together leading scholars with divergent points of view on income redistribution. As Colin D. Campbell, the editor of this volume, points out in the introduction, the conference showed a wide division of opinion on this topic.
In Part One of this volume, Arthur M. Okun discusses the trade-off between equality and efficiency. Next Irving Kristol presents his thoughts on public policies designed to promote equality and on egalitarianism as a social goal. G. Warren Nutter, Henry J. Aaron, Robert Nozick, and Marshall Cohen comment on the two papers.
Part Two consists of a discussion of social insurance by Martin Feldstein. He explores the principles and criteria by which social insurance programs should be designed. He also summarizes research showing that social insurance has a profound effect on economic behavior. James M. Buchanan, Nancy H. Teeters, Robert J. Lampman, and Rita Ricardo Campbell are the discussants.
Part Three includes papers given at the conference by James Tobin and W. Allen Wallis, as well as a third paper by Walter J. Blum. These three authors focus on the role of taxation in redistributing income. The discussants are Oswald H. Browlee, Norman B. Ture, James S. Duesenberry, and Richard A. Musgrave.
In Part Four, Robert Nisbet and Wilbur J. Cohen give their views on “Where Do We Go from Here?” Robert Nisbet examines efforts to redistribute income from a broad historical perspective. Wilbur J. Cohen reviews major areas of social policy where changes may be expected. Edgar K. Browning, Henry J. Aaron, Alan A. Walters, and Irving J. Goffman are the discussants. The part concludes with the conference luncheon address given by Deputy Secretary of the Treasury George H. Dixon on “The Social Allocation of Capital.”
Part Five consists of a round table, “Welfare Reform: Why?” The participants are Wilbur J. Cohen, Barber B. Conable Jr., Paul W. MacAvoy, and Abraham A. Ribicoff, and the moderator is Robert H. Bork.
