This latest volume in the Current Issues in Economics series contains specially commissioned articles by well known experts in the area of the Economics of Welfare. The contributions will be accessible to undergraduate students and cover topics of current interest, including Private and Social Insurance, Retirement Pensions, the Poverty Trap, Benefits, Incentives and Uncertainty, the Definition and Measurement of Poverty and Inequality, the Economics of Charity, Health Care Insurance and Provision, the Economics of Education and the Political Economy of Housing