WARDEN
Tony Atkinson's research this year has focused on two main themes: the distribution of income, and the economics of the welfare state. His work on income distribution has in part been empirical, including the completion of a report for the OECD, comparing inequality in different countries and bringing out the differing evolution over time. In part, he has been investigating different theoretical explanations of the distribution of income, and this was the subject of his Presidential Address to the Royal Economic Society, 'Bringing Income Distribution in from the Cold', in March 1996. The research on the economics of the welfare state has been concerned to examine how far social insurance and social assistance may affect economic performance. It is often asserted that a large welfare state is an obstacle to growth, but the underlying economic mechanisms are not spelled out. This was the subject of the Centre for Economic Studies Lectures given at the University of Munich in November 1995. A second element of the research has been as member of a Europe-wide team, awarded a grant by the European Union Framework Programme, to study the feasibility of a Europe-wide benefit and tax model, EUROMOD.
During the year, he was appointed as a Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation. He continued to serve as President of the Royal Economic Society, and as Editor of the Journal of Public Economics. He was awarded an Honorary Degree by the University of Bologna.
Publications
(with L Rainwater and T Smeeding) Income Distribution in OECD Countries. Paris: OECD, 1995.
Incomes and the Welfare State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
'The Economics of the Welfare State', Acceptance Paper for the Frank E Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy, Rhodes College, Memphis, 1995.
'On Targeting Social Security', in D van de Walle and K Nead (eds.) Public Spending and the Poor. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
'The Case for a Participation Income', Political Quarterly, 67, 1996.
'Income Distribution in Europe and the United States', Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 12 (1), 1996.
'Distribution des revenus en Europe', Revue Française des Affaires Sociales, 50 (1), 1996.
'The Distribution of Income: Evidence, Theories and Policy' De Economist, 144 (1), 1996.
'Seeking to Explain the Distribution of Income', in J Hills (ed.), New Inequalities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
'James Meade's Vision: Full Employment and Social Justice', National Institute Economic Review, No 157, 1996.
'Growth and the Welfare State', New Economy, 3(3), 1996.
'Political Economy, Old and New', in R Goodin and H D Klingemann (eds.) A New Handbook of Political Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.