A Contribution to the Pure Theory of Taxation (Econometric Society Monographs)

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Summary: A masterbook in mathematical economics
Review: Today, a lot of people are convinced that economics is either not a rigorous disciplin or is too mathematically developped to be of any relevant, practical use. This beautiful book by Prof. Roger Guesnerie is a talentuous proof that those people are wrong. On the one hand, the book adheres to the standard of rigor that made, say, Debreu's Theory of Value world-famous. On the other hand, it shows that day-to-day questions of economic policy can be dealt with in an abstract framework, and yet receive pertinent answers. Is a reform incentive-compatible ? How would you evaluate the distributional effect of a given tax system ? What kind of social efficiency can you hope for when designing a new tax system ? All these fascinating questions, and many others, receive rigorous and new answers in this book. The tools used are: general equilibrium theory, game theory, public economic theory. The book will serve as a reference for any academic people working in economics, of course, but will also be of great interest for social ingeneers seeking for a precise vision of social reforms.