Papers on Public Goods and Preference Revelation Mechanisms



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Hugo Sonnenschein, The Economics of Incentives: An Introductory Account, Nancy Schwartz Memorial Lecture, J. L. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 1983 



Paul Samuelson, The Pure Theory of Public Expenditures, Review of Economics and Statistics, 36(4): 350-356, 1954

Paul Samuelson, Diagrammatic Exposition of a Theory of Public Expenditure, Review of Economics and Statistics, 37(4):350-356, 1955

Paul Samuelson, Aspects of Public Expenditure Theories, Review of Economics and Statistics, 40(4):332-338, 1958

Erik Lindahl, Just Taxation--A Positive Solution, in Classics in the Theory of Public Finance, edited by R. Musgrave and A. Peacock

Edward Clarke, The Problem of Public and Nonprivate Goods in Demand Revelation and the Provision of Public Goods, by Edward Clarke.

Theodore Bergstrom and Richard Cornes, Independence of Allocative Efficiency from Distribution in the Theory of Public Goods, Econometrica, 51(6):1753-1765, 1983

Remarks on Readings in this section

Bergstrom notes: "The Lindahl article is a classic, written as a chapter in a book (in German) by the Swedish economist, Lindahl in 1919. It is short, modern in spirit, and a good thing to read. If you want to read more old classic articles by European public finance economists of the early 20th century, you can find them in the book "Classics in the Theory of Public Finance" from which this article is taken. The Samuelson papers are modern classics and everybody who studies public finance should read them". 

 Preference Revelation Mechanisms

Edward Clarke How Demand Revelation Helps Solve The Problem of Public Goods in Demand Revelation and the Provision of Public Goods, by Edward Clarke

Theodore Groves and John Ledyard , Optimal Allocation of Public Goods: A Solution to the Free Rider Problem, Econometrica 45(4):783-809, May, 1977

Yan Chen and Charles Plott, The Groves-Ledyard Mechanism: An Experimental Study of Institutional Design",Journal of Public Economics 59:335-364, 1996

  • Earl Thompson"A Pareto Optimal Group Decision Process," in G. Tullock (editor), Papers on Non-Market Decision Making, Vol. 1, (Charlottesville: Thomas Jefferson Center for Studies in Political Economy, University of Virginia) 1966, pp. 133-140. Also reprinted in an Anthology of Works on Non-Market Decision Making, F. Forte (editor).

  • Earl Thompson"A Pareto Optimal Group Decision Processs, A Reply,"Public Choice, Vol. 2, 1967, pp. 1109-112.

    • Ted Bergstrom's Public Finance Lecture notes optimized for web-viewing See, in particular pages 223-260 on preference revelation mechanisms -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    For additional readings on the Demand Revealing Process , see Edward Clarke's website. See, in particular, "Multipart Pricing of Public Goods" (Clarke 1971).