Economic Perspectives On Government

“Dowding and Taylor offer student and scholar alike a clear and compelling perspective on the foundations of political economy. Their narrative coherently frames the scholarship of the last half century, and persuasively applies it to the recurring problems facing groups, markets, and whole societies.”—Kenneth A. Shepsle, Harvard University, USA This book introduces and applies the economic way of thinking to public policy and public administration. It provides a non-technical introduction and assumes no prior economic or mathematical training but looks closely at the methodological and normative assumptions underlying economic analysis. It provides a deep understanding of the method than a simple technical presentation would allow. After introducing the basic assumptions of the economic method, the book considers the analysis of market failure, the role of government in a market economy, behavioural economics, bargaining in government, bureaucracy, interest groups, and levels of government. By providing a balanced introduction to and overview of economic approaches to government, the book will be useful to undergraduate and postgraduate students in public administration and public policy, as well as academics and practitioners in these fields interested in the application of the economic way of thinking.

The past 50 years have witnessed a revolution in computing and related communications technologies. The contributions of industry and university researchers to this revolution are manifest; less widely recognized is the major role the federal government played in launching the computing revolution and sustaining its momentum. Funding a Revolution examines the history of computing since World War II to elucidate the federal government's role in funding computing research, supporting the education of computer scientists and engineers, and equipping university research labs. It reviews the economic rationale for government support of research, characterizes federal support for computing research, and summarizes key historical advances in which government-sponsored research played an important role. Funding a Revolution contains a series of case studies in relational databases, the Internet, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality that demonstrate the complex interactions among government, universities, and industry that have driven the field. It offers a series of lessons that identify factors contributing to the success of the nation's computing enterprise and the government's role within it.

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Economics - History, grade: 1,7, Humboldt-University of Berlin, 6 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The paper will give a general overview on Douglass C. North's theoretical work during the last twenty years on economic history as well as on new institutions economics and institutional change. While the paper is more concerned on how North approaches the origin and development of the state via property rights it also will take his theory of institutional change and the way he emphasizes economies of scale and transaction costs into account. Part One of this paper will give a short introduction into the topic of the philosophy of the state. This will be followed by North's argumentation and thus his philosophy of the state derived in his numerous works. To begin with, Part Two of this paper gives an introduction into North's argumentation on the role of property rights for economic growth. Part Three will then explain what role government has in economic organization. The role of economies of scale for property rights and fiscal policies will be looked upon thereafter in Part Four. The circle will then be closed by linking economic growth and property rights with the development of the state. Analogously to North's argumentation in his book "The Rise of the Western World" the paper takes a section of ten millennia in economic history in order to explain the tension between property rights and the role of government as North sees it. North's model of the state will then be introduced in Part Six, followed by a short introduction into his Theory of Institutional Change in Part Seven of this paper. A short critique will be given at the end.

Can traditional economic theory help to solve today's vexing social problems? This unique collection of thirty-six papers strongly suggests that it can. The economic approach is applied imaginatively by the authors to a wide range of contemporary issues, such as crime, higher education, the environment, revenue sharing, equity, justice, and the distribution of income. The articles also deal with governmental behavior and the role of the economist as governmental adviser. Shaped during the preparation and teaching of college classes, the book is well suited for courses in principles of economics, microeconomics, price theory, and public policy development and analysis. It should also prove a useful reference work for policy makers.

Using a political-economy perspective this book is an introduction to the responsibilities and limitations of government in a market economy.

The second edition of Public Finance and Public Policy retains the first edition's themes of investigation of responsibilities and limitations of government. The present edition has been rewritten and restructured. Public choice and political economy concepts and political and bureaucratic principal-agent problems are introduced at the beginning for application to later topics. Fairness, envy, hyperbolic discounting, and other concepts of behavioral economics are integrated throughout. The consequences of asymmetric information and the tradeoff between efficiency and ex-post equality are recurring themes. Key themes investigated are markets and governments, institutions and governance, public goods, public finance for public goods, market corrections (externalities and paternalist public policies), voting, social justice, entitlements and equality of opportunity, choice of taxation, and the need for government. The purpose of the book is to provide an accessible introduction to the use of public finance and public policy to improve on market outcomes.