ABSTRACT
In this book, I explore the question: What kinds of institutions are best suited to securing welfare and how should they be involved in doing so? Institutions involved with welfare may be public or private, though the distinction between the two will not be as easily drawn as it might at first appear. Markets are settings for private transactions and private provision of welfare, but they are also publicly instituted and can be made part of public welfare provision. The family is the setting for private life, but this does not exclude public involvement and regulation, for example in the interests of protecting the welfare of children. Public involvement with welfare need not stand as an alternative to the use of markets. When public institutions provide or subsidize insurance for those unable to afford insurance offered by private enterprises or for those whom private enterprises simply refuse to insure, they facilitate the use of markets in the acquisition of services, but do not replace markets. Public institutions may contract with private organizations to provide welfare services. And the state may regulate private industry in a manner designed to assure that it will do a better job of securing welfare.
