We describe a frame work for empirical welfare analysis that uses the causal estimates of a policy’s impact on net government spending. This framework provides guidance for which causal effects are (and are not) needed for empirical welfare analysis of public policies. The key ingredient is the construction of each policy’s marginal value of public funds (MVPF). The MVPF is the ratio of beneficiaries’ willingness to pay for the policy to the net cost to the government. We discuss how the MVPF relates to “traditional” welfare analysis tools such as the marginal excess burden and marginal cost of public funds. We show how the MVPF can be used in practice by applying it to several canonical empirical applications from public finance, labor, development, trade, and industrial organization.

中文翻译：

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福利分析遇上因果推理

我们描述了一个经验福利分析框架，该框架使用政策对政府净支出影响的因果估计。该框架为公共政策的实证福利分析需要（和不需要）哪些因果效应提供了指导。关键因素是每项政策的公共资金边际价值（MVPF）的构建。MVPF 是受益人支付保单的意愿与政府的净成本之比。我们讨论了 MVPF 如何与“传统”福利分析工具相关联，例如边际超额负担和公共资金的边际成本。我们通过将 MVPF 应用于公共财政、劳工、发展、贸易和工业组织的几个典型经验应用，展示了如何在实践中使用 MVPF。