Talk:Welfare economics
In writing this article I have tried to present the basic concepts of WE to non-economists in the first part of the article, then present some fundamental WE analysis for people with an economics background in the second half of the article. However, this article just skims the surface of WE. I have deliberately omitted WE concepts such as:
- compensated demand curves
- equivalent variation
- compensating variation
- arrows theorem
- the second best theorem
- general equilibrium vs partial equilibrium approaches to WE
- dynamic welfare optimization
- input-output models
- gini coefficient
- lorenz curve
- the welfare cost of monopoly
- the welfare cost of externalities
- the welfare cost of price discrimination
I think all of these are better handled as separate articles. Firstly, because they are not central to WE fundamentals, and secondly the article is already 9 computer screens long (which is 3 screens longer than my usual self imposed limit). mydogategodshat 03:30, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)
In the article, price discrimination is listed as a possible source of economic inefficiency. It's been a while since I've studied this, but it seems to me that price discrimination should actually increase efficiency. A uniform price prevents some transactions that would be socially efficient, namely those where the potential buyer's value is higher than the seller's cost, but lower than the market price. Isomorphic 00:00, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)