This book develops a measure of Autonomy Freedom and sheds light on its consequences for policy and political design.

1. Introduction; Part I. Concepts and Tools: 2. Choice and freedom; 3. Measuring autonomy freedom; 4. The empirical measure of autonomy; Part II. Autonomy Freedom and the Welfare State: 5. Why redistribute?; 6. Autonomy freedom and redistribution; 7. Autonomy freedom and welfare spending; 8. Conclusion.

Sebastiano Bavetta is Professor of Economics at the University of Palermo, Italy and visiting professor of Economics and Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. He is a research associate at the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science (CPNSS) at the London School of Economics (UK), where he obtained his Ph.D. in Philosophy of Economics. He has published in The Journal of Theoretical Politics, Social Choice and Welfare, Theory and Decision, Constitutional Political Economy and Economic Affairs, among others. He co-authored a book in Italian (Liberalism in the Era of Conflict, 2008). His research interests focus on policy and institutional design and on the measurement of freedom and its policy and political implications. He has extensive political and administrative experiences in the government of the city of Palermo as well as in Italian local governmental agencies.