Equity versus efficiency: the elusive trade-off

The objectives of equity and efficiency appear high on most lists of the aims of welfare policy. That a welfare program should be assessed at least in part by its ability to promote equity, fairness or justice seems almost axiomatic. That a program should not at the same time create inefficiency or, indeed, that it should actually reduce it, is also a widely accepted criterion for assessment. There will, of course, be other criteria for evaluation - the impact of the program on individual liberties, for example - but none perhaps with the salience of these two.