Economists and politicians of previous generations may have underestimated the costs of the welfare state, but the present generation stands in danger of underestimating its benefits. This excellent book shows how much economic analysis can help to establish a balanced view.
Agnar Sandmo, Professor of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration
This is a most timely and valuable contribution to the ongoing debate on the welfare state. In much of this debate it is taken for granted that generous unemployment compensation and social security has a negative impact on economic performance. Tony Atkinson shows that this conclusion may be wrong once we consider the institutional details of real-world welfare state programs and the realistic alternatives to existing programs. His book is a plea to fellow economists for a more balanced approach to the economic analysis of the welfare state and a warning that, if we simply roll it back, we may end up throwing out the baby with the bath water.
Peter Birch Sorensen, Director of Economic Policy Research Unit, University of Copenhagen
This is altogether a far-reaching book with penetrating analysisand elegant and forceful reasoning.
Amartya Sen, Master, Trinity College, Cambridge, UK, and Lamont University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University, 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics.
