| Abstract: |
A common, though by no means universally-accepted doctrine among practitioners
of law and economics is that redistribution is no business of the law. This
efficiency-only doctrine is not that redistribution is unworthy as a social
objective, but that any given benefit to the poor is attainable at a lower
cost to the rich through taxation than through the choice of legal rules. The
rationale for the efficiency-only doctrine is that redistributive law creates
a double distortion: an initial distortion arising from redistribution pre se,
through taxation or through law, and an additional distortion all its own. The
efficiency-only doctrine is sometimes valid, but is far narrower than its
advocates would seem to suggest, and is inapplicable to most of what is
commonly thought of as redistributive law. Redistribution is best supplied by
a balance of law and taxation. |