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"David Coady"
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Is It Virtuous to Love Truth and Hate Falsehood?
There is a great deal of academic literature, much of it coming from the social sciences and from social epistemology, which presents itself as addressing a very general problem: the problem of excessive falsehood. Falsehood comes in two general forms: false statements and false beliefs. Of course, falsehood, in both these forms, has always been with us, but it is often supposed to be on the rise. I will argue that there is no new or growing problem of excessive falsehood (variously referred to as the problem of “misinformation” or “fake news”). Furthermore, we should reject the very idea that falsehood as such is a problem, and hence we should reject the idea of coming up with public policy responses to this so-called problem. I argue that the idea that falsehood is a problem is a natural consequence of the idea that it is virtuous to love truth and hate falsehood. I argue that, although there are several virtues related to truth (such as the intellectual virtue of curiosity and the moral virtue of honesty), a love of truth and hatred of falsehood are not themselves virtues.
Journal Article
Social versus Individual Work Preferences: Implications for Optimal Income Taxation
The benchmark optimal income taxation model of Mirrlees (1971) finds that the optimal marginal income tax rate (MIT) is always non-negative. This paper extends the benchmark model to allow for differences in social and individual work preferences while maintaining its assumption that individuals are rational. The theoretical and simulation analyses show that under this model, when the government places a higher social weight on work than individuals, the optimal MIT schedule is shifted downwards, introducing the possibility for optimal wage subsidies at the bottom of the income distribution. This implies lower revenues, demogrants and overall progressivity. The case for wage subsidies is reinforced when the government places a relatively higher weight on work for low earners. The model also allows for an analysis of the optimal income tax schedule when government places a social value on unpaid non-market work as argued by Atkinson (2009, 2015).
Journal Article
Targeting Outcomes Redux
A newly constructed comprehensive database of 122 targeted antipoverty interventions in 48 countries is used to examine the contested issue of the efficacy of targeting interventions in developing countries. Though the median program transfers 25 percent more to poor individuals (those in the bottom two quintiles) than would universal allocation, a quarter of the interventions are regressive. Targeting is better in richer countries, in countries where governments are more likely to be held accountable, and in countries where inequality is higher. Interventions that use means testing, geographic targeting, and self-selection based on a work requirement are all associated with an increased share of benefits going to poor people. Proxy-means testing, community-based selection, and demographic targeting to children show good results on average but with wide variation. Self-selection based on consumption, demographic targeting to the elderly, and community bidding show limited potential for good targeting. The substantial variation in targeting performance within specific program types and specific targeting methods suggests that differences in implementation are also important factors in determining the success of targeting to poor individuals.
Journal Article
Energy subsidies
Energy subsidies are pervasive. Pretax subsidies, which arise when energy consumers pay less than the supply cost of energy, are high in many developing and emerging economies. Although pretax subsidies are not prevalent in advanced economies, they have large tax subsidies. These arise when energy is taxed below the rate of other consumption goods and are not high enough to capture the negative externalities from energy consumption, including the effects on climate change, local pollution, and traffic congestion. Posttax subsidies (the sum of pretax and tax subsidies) are estimated at about US$2 trillion (2.9 percent of global GDP) in 2011, with advanced economies accounting for a substantial share of the total. Energy subsidies aggravate fiscal imbalances, depress growth, damage the environment, and reinforce inequality. Country experience suggests that well-designed energy subsidy reform strategies can win public support. A far-reaching communications strategy, appropriately phased energy price increases, and targeted mitigating measures to protect the poor are among the most important elements of these strategies.
Journal Article
Pain and depression are associated with both physical and mental fatigue independently of comorbidities and medications in primary Sjögren’s syndrome
ObjectivesTo report on fatigue in patients from the United Kingdom primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) registry identifying factors associated with fatigue and robust to assignable causes such as comorbidities and medications associated with drowsiness.MethodsFrom our cohort (n = 608), we identified those with comorbidities associated with fatigue, and those taking medications associated with drowsiness. We constructed dummy variables, permitting the contribution of these potentially assignable causes of fatigue to be assessed. Using multiple regression analysis, we modelled the relationship between Profile of Fatigue and Discomfort physical and mental fatigue scores and potentially related variables.ResultsPain, depression and daytime sleepiness scores were closely associated with both physical and mental fatigue (all p ≤ 0.0001). In addition, dryness was strongly associated with physical fatigue (p ≤ 0.0001). These effects were observed even after adjustment for comorbidities associated with fatigue or medications associated with drowsiness.ConclusionsThese findings support further research and clinical interventions targeting pain, dryness, depression and sleep to improve fatigue in patients with pSS.This finding is robust to both the effect of other comorbidities associated with fatigue and medications associated with drowsiness.
Journal Article
Targeting Performance under Self‐selection and Administrative Targeting Methods
We evaluate the contributions of self‐selection and administrative targeting to program targeting performance using unique household survey data collected for the evaluation of a Mexican social program that has acted as a regional prototype. Both forms of targeting improve targeting performance, but administrative selection based on proxy‐means testing plays a crucial role in reducing total program coverage (to meet a budget constraint) while maintaining high coverage among the lowest income groups. Its importance is reinforced when existing knowledge barriers to participation are addressed, reflecting the high application rates among higher‐income groups conditional on knowledge. Differentiating transfers based on household demographics also substantially improves targeting performance reflecting the linking of transfers to the number of children. Although expansion of the program to reduce the remaining undercoverage is likely to come at the expense of targeting performance, this trade‐off can be reduced by improving the underlying proxy‐means algorithm and linking transfer levels directly to proxy‐means scores. The latter should also improve the contribution of self‐selection to targeting performance.
Journal Article
Evaluating Alternative Policy Responses to Higher World Food Prices: The Case of Increasing Rice Prices in Madagascar
Higher world food prices have led many developing countries to adopt policies to mitigate the impact on low-income households. This article sets out a partial equilibrium framework to evaluate the efficiency, distributional, and revenue implications of alternative policy responses. The model is applied to evaluate tariff reductions and targeted transfers in Madagascar. Although lowering tariffs generates substantial efficiency gains, these accrue mainly to the top half of the welfare distribution, and poor net sellers are actually worse off. Developing a system of targeted direct transfers to poor households is likely to be a substantially more cost-effective approach to poverty alleviation.
Journal Article
Information and Participation in Social Programs
Participation in social programs, such as clubs and other social organizations, results from a process in which an agent learns about the requirements, benefits, and likelihood of acceptance related to a program, applies to be a participant, and, finally, is accepted or rejected. We propose a model of this participation process and provide an application of the model using data from a social program in Mexico. Our empirical analysis illustrates that decisions at each stage of the process are responsive to expectations about the decisions and outcomes at the subsequent stages and that knowledge about the program can have a significant impact on participation outcomes.
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