Under what conditions do markets function efficiently?

In the presence of frictions, markets often (but not always) do not generate the socially efficient outcome. However, asymmetric information between the private and public sector prevents the government from designing efficient policies. In both labor and public economics advances have been made to understand and quantify the welfare losses due to search and information frictions. Public policies (e.g. taxes, subsidies) generally cause inefficiencies and can both exacerbate or reduce existing market frictions. In this conference we want to bring together a broad set of high quality papers crossing the borders between the fields of labor economics and public finance.

Possible topics include sorting/allocation of workers, measurement of frictions and distortions, human capital formation, optimal design of policies including minimum wages, employment protection, UI benefits and income redistribution.

For more information, please go to  http://www.tinbergen.nl/ti-events/ti-conference-2011.php