Zachary Liscow

Print
Article
85.7
Is Efficiency Biased?
Zachary Liscow
Associate Professor, Yale Law School

Thanks to Bruce Ackerman, Matt Adler, Anne Alstott, Ian Ayres, Bob Cooter, Dan Farber, Lee Fennell, Ed Fox, Heather Gerken, Jacob Goldin, Michael Graetz, Andrew Hayashi, Christine Jolls, Amy Kapczynski, Louis Kaplow, Max Kasy, Al Klevorick, Lewis Kornhauser, Doug Kysar, Daniel Markovits, Mitch Polinsky, Alex Raskolnikov, Susan Rose-Ackerman, Chris Sanchirico, David Schleicher, Alan Schwartz, Steve Shavell, Matt Stephenson, Judge Stephen Williams, Gui Woolston, and participants at the Columbia Tax Policy Workshop, Yale Law School Faculty Workshop, National Tax Association Annual Meetings, Loyola Law School Tax Policy Workshop, Boston University Law and Economics Workshop, Boston College Tax Policy Workshop, and William and Mary Faculty Workshop for helpful comments. Thanks to Daniel Giraldo, Brian Highsmith, Quentin Karpilow, Michael Loughlin, Brian McGrail, Farrah Ricketts, Kate Tian, and Jacob Waggoner for excellent research assistance.

Suppose that a city is considering building neighborhood parks, each of which costs $1 million to build. The residents of a rich neighborhood are willing to pay $2 million for the park, but the residents of a poor neighborhood are willing to pay only $500,000, less than the cost of construction.