Welfare analysis meets causal inference
Author(s)
Finkelstei, Amy; Hendren, Nathaniel
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We describe a frame work for empirical welfare analysis that uses the causal estimates of a policy’s impact on net government spending. This framework provides guidance for which causal effects are (and are not) needed for empirical welfare analysis of public policies. The key ingredient is the construction of each policy’s marginal value of public funds (MVPF). The MVPF is the ratio of beneficiaries’ willingness to pay for the policy to the net cost to the government. We discuss how the MVPF relates to “traditional” welfare analysis tools such as the marginal excess burden and marginal cost of public funds. We show how the MVPF can be used in practice by applying it to several canonical empirical applications from public finance, labor, development, trade, and industrial organization.
Date issued
2020-09Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of EconomicsJournal
Journal of Economic Perspectives
Publisher
American Economic Association
Citation
Finkelstein, Amy and Nathaniel Hendren. “Welfare analysis meets causal inference.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 34, 4 (September 2020): 146–167 © 2020 The Author(s)
Version: Final published version
ISSN
0895-3309