Clergyman's

Markets can be efficient or inefficient; so can governments. thus market failure is a counterpoint to government failure.
- Nicholas Barr

Markets can be efficient or inefficient; so can governments. thus market failure is a counterpoint to government failure.
- Nicholas Barr

In a world of certainty, the welfare state has only a small role.
- Nicholas Barr

Given the external benefits higher education creates, it is efficient that taxpayers subsidies should be a permanent part of the landscape.
- Nicholas Barr

Money income is a flawed measure of individual welfare.
- Nicholas Barr

Unless the countries of East Asia are very different, rising incomes and the weakening of extended family ties will lead to demands for rising social expenditure.
- Nicholas Barr

The welfare state is the outcome of diverse forces over nearly four centuries of developing social policy.
- Nicholas Barr

Education to the extent that it raises an individual's future earnings, increases her future tax payments; in the absence of any subsidy, an individual's investment in education confers a 'dividend' on future taxpayers.
- Nicholas Barr

First, the welfare state is not a subject apart, but fits naturally into the framework of economic analysis. Secondly,the theoretical arguments support the existence of the welfare state not only for well known equity reasons but also - and powerfully - in efficiency terms.
- Nicholas Barr

A reduction in the liberty of the least well off cannot be justified even if it is to their economic advantage.
- Nicholas Barr