Just Resource Sharing Among Generations: Equity, Efficiency and Optimal Population

Abstract

The problem of resource sharing is one of the most eminent problems of today’s economic policy. Many instruments of (re-)distribution are available in an economy for instance taxes, government debt and social security systems, and many other governmental tools which are not named as such can be identified as belonging to one or another of these groups. Nearly all of these instruments are not only used to extract a price for a certain service provided by state institutions, but they are also intended to redistribute wealth, directly or indirectly, between individuals. Therefore, the question arises as to how a government should use these tools to arrive at a just distribution of resources between individuals within and across generations. It is just this latter problem of intergenerational just resource sharing which will be the concern of this chapter.