Books reviewed: William Coleman and Alf Hagger, The Rage Over Economic Rationalism and the Campaign Against Australian Economists Hian Teck Hoon, Trade, Jobs and Wages Yoram Amiel and Frank A. Cowell, Thinking About Inequality Paul Downward and Alistair Dawson, The Economics of Professional Team Sports George Fane, Capital Mobility, Exchange Rates and Economic Crises Ben S. Bernanke, Thomas Laubach, Frederic S. Mishkin and Adam S. Posen, Inflation Targeting: Lessons from the International Experience Martin F.J. Prachowny, The Kennedy-Johnson Tax Cut William D. Nordhaus and Joseph Boyer, 'Warming the World - Economic Models of Global Warming' David S. Evans and Richard Schmalensee, Paying with Plastic: The Digital Revolution in Buying and Borrowing.

Using the standard non linear income and commodity taxation framework, we examine the optimal policy to be adopted when the same labour disutility can receive two opposite interpretations: taste for leisure and activity limitation. In the absence of complete information about individual characteristics, an income tax does not allow distinguishing lazy from handicapped individuals. One may rely, however, on a combination of commodity and income taxes to redistribute from the former to the latter when they differ in their preferences for commodities.