Review of Economics and Statistics · 2026 · Debopam Bhattacharya、Tatiana Komarova
中文摘要
我们针对离散选择, 在异质性与收入效应不受限制的情形下, 引入一个以货币度量的社会福利概念。该概念是对外部选项进行规范化后所得的最大化间接效用; 它也等于在若干选择被禁止的情况下, 达到给定效用水平所需的收入量。我们证明, 该量的分布可被非参数地识别为外部选项平均结构需求的封闭形式泛函, 因而可用于成本收益分析与最优瞄准。以印度私人辅导补贴为例的说明显示, 使使用最大化的补贴与使福利最大化的补贴在收入路径上存在显著差异。
Abstract
We introduce a notion of money-metric social welfare for discrete choice under unrestricted heterogeneity and income effects. It is the maximized indirect utility under normalization of the outside option. It also equals the amount of income necessary to achieve a given level of utility, while certain choices are prohibited. We show that the distribution of this quantity is nonparametrically identified as a closed-form functional of average structural demand for the outside option, making it useful for cost-benefit analysis and optimal targeting. An illustration with private tuition subsidies in India shows that the income path of usage-maximizing subsidies differs significantly from welfare-maximizing ones.