The Economic Efficiency of the Original US Constitution
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2021-08-24Author
Williamson, Alexander
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Since it was ratified, the United States Constitution has been the supreme law of
the land for the nation. The legal importance of the Constitution is obvious. Despite this
fact, few attempts have been made to determine the impact of the US Constitution on
economic efficiency. This thesis investigates the economic efficiency of the US
Constitution in its original form. That is, the body of the Constitution and the first ten
amendments – often referred to as the Bill of Rights. The thesis looks at the
Constitution’s impact civil commerce, private markets, and public activity. A few smaller
topic that do not fit well into such labels are also included. Economic efficiency is
defined primarily in terms of Pareto Optimality. A few sections also discuss efficiency in
terms of Kaldor-Hicks efficiency, but it is a secondary metric.