Q. Describe ex-ante heterogeneity?

First conflict reflects heterogeneity among agents due to different policy preferences. Individuals or agents are heterogeneous in a number of dimensions leading them to prefer policies ex-ante. This is called ex-ante heterogeneity.

The other type is called ex-post heterogeneity which refer to the conflict (of interests) arising due to distributional implications of the public policy. Thus when a public policy has some distributional consequences, representative agents will be in conflict over distribution due to their respective "self interests". Ex-ante heterogeneity is important not only for distributive implications but also for understanding of the political aspects of the representative agents. It is also important in understanding of the time inconsistency problem of the policy process which arises when a policy maker maximizes welfare of a ‘representation agents'. In such situation, agents may, with respect to policy benefits, be identical ex-ante but are not identical ex-post.