Public Economics: A Concise Introduction provides a concise and non-technical overview of the role of government in the economy. Using the questions ‘why?’, ‘what for?’ and ‘how?’, the text initially surveys the place of the public sector in a market economy. It then considers the possible reasons which could justify government involvement. Next, the book examines the aims of state economic activity, and the instruments which a government has at its disposal. Lastly, the final chapter provides an illuminating tour of economic history and history of economic thought in relation to government economic activity. The book offers an international focus throughout, with examples taken from all over the globe. Readers are supported with a range of pedagogical features, including example boxes, chapter objectives and summaries, and end-of-chapter multiple choice and reflection questions. Public Economics: A Concise Introduction will be a valuable text for students on courses in public economics, welfare economics, public finance, public policy and related areas.

Many important economic and political debates today refer to the nature and the role of the State: should governments intervene in the economy and interfere with the operation of markets? In which occasions, and how? In order to better understand these questions and the controversies they have raised, this book re-considers the debates crucial for the issues at stake, the most important schools of thought, and the central concepts in an historical perspective. After a tribute to Sir Alan Peacock and the first publication of two hitherto unpublished papers written in the 1950s, the chapters focus on important developments that occurred in Europe during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The final part includes contributions on public economics after World War II, focusing on concepts such as merit goods, externalities and the “Coase theorem”. This book was originally published as a special issue of The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought.

The study of public economics has undergone dramatic changes in the past two decades. Major developments in economic theory have revolutionized the subject and have changed the way we view the role of government. The constraints of information and institutions have called into question the ability of the government to carry out some of its traditional tasks, but have also led to new instruments and approaches for dealing with the problem of economic policy such as the design of the redistribution and tax system. Understanding the importance of the economic, behavioral and institutional constraints facing government is critical for evaluating policy options. This is ultimately an empirical issue. This book of a symposium on empiricial public finance indicates the richness and diversity of empirical approaches that have been used to shed light on the problems of applied public finance and its application.

Governments all round the world are facing problems with their public finances. At a time of austerity, how much should spending be cut and how much should taxes be raised? Does the national debt represent a burden for future generations? Should taxes on the rich be raised? This book examines how the tools of public economics can be applied to answer such key questions and to suggest alternatives to the austerity policies currently being pursued. The fiscal problems faced are not simply the result of the post-2008 economic crisis but reflect a deep-seated fault line in modern economies. There has to be fiscal consolidation to provide for an ageing population, increased investment in education, and climate change. The book describes how public economics can help us think about alternative ways of meeting this challenge. It casts doubt on conventionally held views, such as those concerned with top tax rates, the undesirability of taxing capital income, the targeting of child benefits, and the merging of income tax and social security contributions. The final part goes beyond national boundaries and considers global public economics, focusing on the pressing problem of financing development. The conclusion of the book is that there are significant choices to be made. Not all austerity packages are the same: there are alternatives. It would be possible to raise taxes more and to cut spending less. It is important to consider the full range of possible policies. In considering these alternatives, modern public economics provides a useful framework, but it has major limitations. Economists are too often prisoners within the theoretical walls they have erected and fail to see that important considerations are missing. Economists have paid too little attention to the ethical basis underlying their policy recommendations.

This book contains essays in honor of Charles B. Blankart on the occasion of his 65th birthday. The contributors include prominent scholars from the discipline of public finance and public choice. The essays include such topics as taxation, public choice, and regulation, and thus give testimony of Blankart's very broad ranging interests in economics.

Hans-Werner Sinn, Munich, West Germany This book contains 15 papers presented at a conference in Neresheim, West Ger many, in June 1986. The articles were selected by anonymous referees and most of them have undergone substantial revisions since their presentation. The common topic is measurement of welfare, both from efficiency and from equity perspectives. For many economists, welfare is a diffuse, arbitrary and am biguous concept. The papers collected in this book show that this view is not justified. Though not beyond all doubt, welfare theory today is crisp and clear, offering fairly straightforward measuring concepts. It even comes up with numbers that measure society's advantage or disadvantage from specific policy options in monetary units. Politicians get something they can intuitively understand and argue with, and they do not have to be afraid that all this is metaphysics or the result of the scientist's personal value judgements. Some economists, whom I would classify as belonging to the "everything is optimal" school, would claim that providing politicians with numerical welfare measures is superfluous or even dangerous. The world is as it is, and any attempt to give policy advice can only make things worse. I do not share this view. There are good policies and there are bad ones, but it may not be easy to distinguish between them. There is a role for consulting politicians, Dr.

A new edition of a comprehensive text, updated throughout, with new material on behavioral economics, international taxation, cost-benefit analysis, and the economics of climate policy. Public economics studies how government taxing and spending activities affect the economy—economic efficiency and the distribution of income and wealth. This comprehensive text on public economics covers the core topics of market failure and taxation as well as recent developments in both policy and the academic literature. It is unique not only in its broad scope but in its balance between public finance and public choice and its combination of theory and relevant empirical evidence. The book covers the theory and methodology of public economics; presents a historical and theoretical overview of the public sector; and discusses such topics as departures from efficiency (including imperfect competition and asymmetric information), issues in political economy, equity, taxation, fiscal federalism, and tax competition among independent jurisdictions. Suggestions for further reading, from classic papers to recent research, appear in each chapter, as do exercises. The mathematics has been kept to a minimum without sacrificing intellectual rigor; the book remains analytical rather than discursive. This second edition has been thoroughly updated throughout. It offers new chapters on behavioral economics, limits to redistribution, international taxation, cost-benefit analysis, and the economics of climate policy. Additional exercises have been added and many sections revised in response to advice from readers of the first edition.

Attiat Ott and Richard Cebula have recognised the need to present, in an accessible and straightforward way, the voluminous literature in the public economics arena. Advances in econometric techniques and the spillover of knowledge from other disciplines made it difficult, not only for students but also for lecturers, to accurately find the information they need. This major Companion addresses a wealth of topics common to the study of both public economics and public choice including questions such as: How does one structure the whole spectrum of public finance in a manageable framework? What is Wagner s Law really about and what does empirical testing tell us? How binding is the budget constraint? How encompassing is a dictator s interest? How do veto powers of the executive, institutional structures and regimes affect public sector outcomes? Do voters behave rationally? Do conflicts yield benefits? Is war cost effective and does secession offer a viable exit option? The contributions, both theoretical and empirical, shed light on some contentious issues in the public economics literature and provide readers with insight into issues that are at the forefront of discussions about the public economy. The empirical analysis utilizes recent econometric techniques to validate or refute empirical findings based on older vintage econometrics. The diversity of coverage ranges from traditional models of the public economy to the incorporation of defence spending as a significant and often neglected function of the public sector. The contributors include many pioneers and leading lights in the field. The Elgar Companion to Public Economics will be required reading for academics and scholars at many levels in the fields of public economics and public choice but mainly graduate and above. The Companion will also be of value to scholars in the wider social sciences in general and political science in particular.

The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics presents a unified conceptual framework for analyzing taxation--the first to be systematically developed in several decades. An original treatment of the subject rather than a textbook synthesis, the book contains new analysis that generates novel results, including some that overturn long-standing conventional wisdom. This fresh approach should change thinking, research, and teaching for decades to come. Building on the work of James Mirrlees, Anthony Atkinson and Joseph Stiglitz, and subsequent researchers, and in the spirit of classics by A. C. Pigou, William Vickrey, and Richard Musgrave, this book steps back from particular lines of inquiry to consider the field as a whole, including the relationships among different fiscal instruments. Louis Kaplow puts forward a framework that makes it possible to rigorously examine both distributive and distortionary effects of particular policies despite their complex interactions with others. To do so, various reforms--ranging from commodity or estate and gift taxation to regulation and public goods provision--are combined with a distributively offsetting adjustment to the income tax. The resulting distribution-neutral reform package holds much constant while leaving in play the distinctive effects of the policy instrument under consideration. By applying this common methodology to disparate subjects, The Theory of Taxation and Public Economics produces significant cross-fertilization and yields solutions to previously intractable problems.

Over time, public goods, services, and policies have been developed for the welfare of people all over the world, and public finance in particular focuses on challenging issues that are significantly important for the common good of humanity. It is a plausible argument that public economics should be focused on dealing with new challenging issues such as global health crises, global warming, and internet architecture. The Handbook of Research on Challenges in Public Economics in the Era of Globalization evaluates a variety of new challenging issues that have directly affected the world economy in terms of the economic units, institutions, and social life. Covering topics such as democratic decentralization, economic instability, and global health issues, this major reference work is a valuable resource for economists, international business leaders, government officials, sociologists, libraries, researchers, academicians, educators, and students.