John Creedy

This selection of John Creedy's essays on labour economics sheds light on the areas of labour mobility, skilled labour markets and trade unions and wages. Among other issues, Professor Creedy discusses:the effects of migration, population ageing and retirement on the labour marketthe economic analysis of internal labour marketsjob mobility, earnings and responsibility in skilled labour markets with a particular emphasis on chemists and professional scientiststhe relationship between trade unions, tax levels and relative wagesLabour Mobility, Earnings and Unemployment will be a valuable point of reference for students and scholars of labour economics.

This book outlines the development of the theory of exchange, paying particular attention to formal models produced during the last half of the 19th century. This is achieved in two ways, by providing an introductory survey of the development of the theory and by reproducing extracts from some of the major contributors. John Creedy examines Cournot's analysis of trade between regions and Walras's model of exchange with a utility maximising foundation. He also analyses the developments in England during this time including Mill's treatment of international trade, which simulated Whewell and Marshall's work on a non-utility framework. In addition, the author considers the pioneering contribution of Jevons who had a major influence on Edgeworth, who in turn managed to synthesise many of the theories as well as producing his own important innovations. Finally, the developments made by Launhardt and Wicksell to the modern theory of exchange are discussed. What emerges from John Creedy's account is that these models are formally similar, but often disguised as different approaches by the different emphasis placed on certain parts of the model by the individual contributors. This pioneering book will be of interest to those working in the fields of the history of economics, international trade and microeconomics.

This book brings together John Creedy's most important essays on the history of economic analysis. The book contributes to our understanding of the development of economics by looking at the subject and some of its major players including Pareto, Edgeworth, Marshall and Wicksell, from an historical perspective. It reveals how learning about a subject and its past is critical to understanding current debates.

This book is concerned with some of the conceptual and practical problems of measuring the changes in welfare of individuals and the excess burdens arising from taxation. It provides an introductory review of alternative concepts and practical approaches to the measurement of welfare as well as providing a number of practical examples of welfare analyses in a variety of contexts. The excess burden of a tax is a central concept in economics. John Creedy provides an introduction to various concepts of welfare change, paying particular attention to the measurement issues involved. He then applies the methods outlined to the measurement of marginal tax reform and indirect tax reform, with empirical data taken from Australia. He also examines the redistributive effect of price changes in Australia between 1980 and 1995, and the effects of inflation in New Zealand over the period 1993-1995. Finally, he calculates the welfare costs of monopoly and measures the burdens of carbon taxation and welfare. Measuring Welfare Changes and Tax Burdens will be of interest to students and academics working in the areas of public finance and public policy, as well as economists working in government.

Population ageing is an important trend which will be experienced in industrialized countries in the early years of the next century. This significant book examines aspects of population ageing and pensions, with an emphasis on the design and use of simple economic models to focus on particular aspects of a very broad problem. The analysis of pensions presents many complex problems. A major aim of this book is to demonstrate how reasonably simple economic models can be designed and used to shed some light on the issues involved in population growth and pension provision. The basic analytics of population growth and pension structure are first explored. Projections for Australia are examined and used to model ageing and social expenditure and to estimate the 'burden' of aged care on future workers. The author goes on to investigate pensions and pension finance, and examines several types of economic model before turning to the analysis of alternative pension arrangements using a lifetime simulation model. The results of the study suggest that both lower contribution rates and a universal pension encourage a later retirement age. This book will prove invaluable to students and scholars of public sector economics, welfare economics, social economics and public finance.

This important book is concerned with the evaluation of changes in income distribution and the analysis of tax and transfer systems. The book begins with an introduction to the measurement of inequality and poverty, stressing the role of value judgements. The following six chapters deal with cross- sectional comparisons, including the analysis of a labour market model of income distribution, the choice of transfer system, marginal indirect tax reform, and the distributional effects of inflation. The next seven chapters are concerned with dynamic aspects of income distribution. These examine the complex relationship between cross-sectional and lifetime distributions, relative income mobility, and the effects of income mobility on temporary and permanent poverty. The Dynamics of Inequality and Poverty will be essential reading for students and scholars of public sector economics, welfare economics and social economics, along with those directly concerned with policy formulation.

The major industrialized countries are undergoing a significant demographic transition associated with low fertility rates combined with reduced mortality rates. A major consequence of the current transition is that populations are expected to age substantially over the next forty years. This innovative book studies the effects of population ageing with the associated factor of immigration, on social expenditure and public finance. The authors begin by providing an introduction to some of the main issues concerning population ageing and migration. This is followed by a discussion of the demographic and economic aspects of the transition towards an older population which is taking place in the major industrialized countries. Within this framework the impacts of ageing on government budgets and the labour market are analysed. The book then turns to a discussion of some of the economic, social and demographic issues related to immigration. Particular emphasis is placed on the Australian economy, which provides an interesting case study in view of its high immigration levels, particularly over the last fifty years. The authors project population structure and social expenditure patterns under a variety of assumptions concerning the number and composition of immigrants. The quantitative techniques developed to produce these projections can be applied without modification to any other country. Population Ageing, Migration and Social Expenditure will be of use to academics and students with an interest in public finance, public policy and population studies.

This important book examines the economic policies required to reduce carbon dioxide emissions - a major source of pollution throughout the world. It explores the likely impact of environmental taxes on income distribution and economic welfare. The authors consider a tax on domestic fuel and power and a carbon tax, and the likely adverse distribution effects of these on a population. The analysis allows for the direct and indirect effects (through inter-industry transactions) of taxes on prices and consumers' responses to these price changes. The welfare effects are also estimated for a variety of income groups. The authors then evaluate the inequality and social welfare measures and consider whether the distributional effects can be overcome by adjusting transfer payments to compensate lower-income groups. This study examines environmental taxes in Australia with methods which can be applied to other countries, some of which were specifically designed to overcome data limitation problems. Environmental Taxes and Economic Welfare will be of special interest to researchers, academics, policymakers and advisers on taxation and environmental policy.

This major new book provides an accessible and innovative introduction to general equilibrium analysis and associated welfare economics. In this distinct and refreshing treatment, John Creedy develops a simple two sector model using only diagrams and simple mathematics to ensure that this treatment will be accessible to students. The analysis of exchange and the gains from trade in the context of price taking behaviour are the subject of the first part of the book. Special attention is given to general equilibrium supply and demand curves and, in contrast with partial equilibrium treatments, the possibility of multiple equilibria. Trading at disequilibrium prices, the influence of the numbers of traders and bargaining solutions are then discussed before production is added to the analysis and the two sector model constructed. General Equilibrium and Welfare will be welcomed for its accessible introduction to General Equilibrium analysis and for the strong emphasis it places on exchange, which is closely in line with the work of early neoclassical writers such as Jevons, Walras, Edgeworth and Wicksell.

In Fiscal Policy and Social Welfare John Creedy examines alternative tax and transfer systems and their redistributive effects. Drawing on original research, this volume concentrates on modelling tax structures and their implications for social welfare and income distribution. After reviewing various inequality and tax progressivity measures, as well as social welfare functions, the discussion moves systematically from a framework with fixed labour supplies to one in which labour supplies respond to changes in the tax system. Attention is given to taxes in a multi-period context, including the treatment of pension schemes. Finally, the analysis is extended to a general equilibrium framework involving many individuals. Extensive use is made of numerical examples and diagrams. Researchers, students and policy makers will welcome this rigorous and consistent treatment of alternative tax and transfer systems and their effects on social welfare, income distribution and tax progressivity, in both partial and general equilibrium contexts.

The debate regarding the increased funding of higher education has focused on specific issues - such as whether higher education should be financed through general taxation and the implications of collecting fees later in life through the use of a tax surcharge - while largely ignoring the important economic interdependencies which affect them. In The Economics of Higher Education, John Creedy explores the economic foundations of the debate and focuses attention on the process of government decision-making including the precise way that these decisions are affected by the possible external effects of higher education. This book addresses the key issues in the debate using a fully specified model which allows for dispersion of abilities, the individual’s decision to invest in higher education and the government’s choice of higher education grant, along with the government’s budget constraint. This model is also used to consider the effects of alternative tax and grant systems on the distribution of lifetime income within a cohort of individuals, and is extended to allow for the general equilibrium effects of other social transfers to the low paid, along with means testing of grants. The non-technical introduction discusses the author’s approach, the framework of analysis and the conclusions which he has reached. As a rigorous analytical contribution to a major public policy debate, this book will be welcomed by policymakers and educationalists, as well as by teachers and researchers in the field of public economics.

How far can efficiency be pursued without sacrificing equity? Do fiscal changes designed to improve incentives necessarily lead to greater inequality of incomes? Does the profitability of ‘big business’ really reflect economies of scale and scope or is it also a reflection of market power? In addressing these and other key questions, a group of internationally acclaimed economists demonstrates why issues of concentration and inequality in economic life are moving to the top of the political agenda in the 1990s. Drawing upon the pioneering work of Peter Hart, this volume reflects the range of his influence from theoretical examinations of measures of industrial concentration and income inequality, to detailed empirical explorations of changes in concentration over time. The volume includes essays on, among other issues, the Hart measure of income mobility, income distribution in Eastern Europe, the UK state pension scheme, trends in the concentration of UK manufacturing in the 1980s, the EC Merger Control Regulation, corporate research and development strategies and corporate technological specialization in international industries. Industrial Concentration and Economic Inequality will be particularly relevant for government policy makers, social analysts and economists concerned with income distribution and industrial policy.

Demand and Exchange in Economic Analysis provides a rare combination of detailed analysis of a central area of economics with the history of economic thought. The first part of the book examines major attempts to treat mathematically the partial equilibrium concept of demand conceived as a schedule. The second part, after generalizing Cournot's model of trade in a single good, traces the general equilibrium analysis of exchange. This adds to the concept of a demand curve the fundamental interpretation of the rate of exchange, or price ratio, in terms of the amount of one good offered in return for a unit of another good. The similarity in the treatments of Mill, Whewell, Marshall and Walras is revealed along with the emphasis on multiple equilibria. Edgeworth's grand synthesis and extension of Jevons's approach to exchange is then discussed in detail. The book will be of interest to a wide range of economists interested in placing modern theory in historical perspective.

An empirical analysis of earnings over the life cycle which addresses major policy issues in several central areas. It examines measurement of wealth and lifetime inequality, earnings mobility between generations and the demographic effects on aggregate consumption.