Kirjahaku

In Last Exit Clifford Winston reminds us that transportation services and infrastructure in the United States were originally introduced by private firms. The case for subsequent public ownership and management of the system was weak, in his view, and here he assesses the case for privatization and deregulation to greatly improve Americans' satisfaction with their transportation systems.

Focusing on ways that markets work with, rather than against, governments to enhance public welfare.The optimal mix of market forces and government intervention to allocate resources is one of the longest-standing problems facing human civilization. At the theoretical extremes, resources in centrally planned economies are allocated by the government, while resources in capitalist economies are allocated by private markets. In practice, market forces and government interventions co-exist to allocate goods and services in a political environment with shifting pressures to give one approach more responsibility than the other.Current public attitudes toward markets are at a low point in the wake of the Great Recession and the growth in income inequality that began in the 1970s. However, in this book, noted Brookings economist Clifford Winston argues that it is a serious mistake to overlook that markets will be a critical part of the solution to any public objective—whether it be to reduce inequality, stimulate long-term growth, slow climate change, or eliminate COVID 19. In Winston's view, policymakers should be much more aware of the many ways that markets help government to achieve economic and social goals and the potential that markets have to provide greater assistance in achieving those goals.Winston synthesizes the empirical evidence on the efficacy of markets in helping to protect consumers against anti-competitive behavior and when technology appears to prevent price competition; to enable individuals to make more informed decisions; and to reduce negative externalities, improve public production, and encourage innovations. Importantly, Winston presents evidence indicating how markets can also help to reduce poverty, promote fairness in labor markets, and provide merit goods. Winston subjects his assessment to a robustness test by explaining how market forces have helped to address the COVID-19 pandemic by, for example, finding new ways for people to work safely and providing incentives for pharmaceutical companies to develop safe and effective vaccines.Winston takes a proactive approach in his conclusion by suggesting the formation of a major “Commission” composed of academics, policymakers, and businesspeople. Such a panel could explore how market forces could provide greater help to government to address economic and social problems and could provide specific recommendations to facilitate market solutions where appropriate.

"When should government intervene in market activity and when is it best to let market forces take their natural course? How does the existing empirical evidence about government performance guide our answers to these questions? In this clear, concise book, Clifford Winston offers his innovative analysis—shaped by thirty years of evidence—to assess the efficacy of government interventions. Markets fail when it is possible to make one person better off without making someone else worse off, thus indicating inefficiency. Governments fail when an intervention is unwarranted because markets are performing well or when the intervention fails to correct a market problem efficiently. Winston concludes from existing research that the cost of government failure may actually be considerably greater than the cost of market failure: ""My search of the evidence is not limited to policy failures. I will report success stories, but few of them emerged from my search."" The prevalence of market failure is due to a lack of conviction in favor of markets, the inflexibility of intervening government agencies, and political forces that enable certain interest groups to benefit at the expense of society as a whole. Winston suggests that government policy can be improved by making greater use of market-oriented solutions that have already produced benefits in certain situations. "

The choice of whether to recommend a market solution or a government intervention to address an economic or social problem is the eternal issue of public policy analysis. Throughout the decades, academics, policymakers, and the public have alternated between market-friendly and market-skeptical perspectives. But do these shifting views accurately reflect our knowledge about market and government performance? In this book, Clifford Winston examines the extensiveness as well as the persistence of government failures in the US economy and the potential for market corrections to address those failures. He provides contemporary empirical evidence that strongly questions the effectiveness of government interventions, and he explores whether markets can self-correct to solve economic and social problems more efficiently. Offering a comprehensive overview of government failures, the book includes key definitions and classifications. Winston synthesizes the available empirical evidence and analyzes the findings, which reveal persistent losses in economic welfare, despite the positive theoretical expectations of government interventions. Theoretical explanations of government failures are then evaluated and found to lack the ability to guide efficient policy reforms. Finally, the robustness of markets to overcome their inefficiencies or failures is characterized in terms of market corrections. Empirical evidence is presented to show that, in contrast to government failures, markets have often corrected their failures. The implications of the book for academics and policymakers are twofold. First, when they are considering the efficacy of a market solution or a government intervention to address an economic or social problem, they should be much more cognizant of the potential for government failure and for this failure to persist. Second, they should also take a long-run view of markets and account for their ability to self-correct. Thus, the book calls for a more stable perspective toward markets and government—one where market corrections, not government interventions, are envisioned as offering a path for improving the US economy.