Public Finance

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.

In this volume, based on a week-long symposium at the University of Munich's Center for Economic Studies, two leading scholars of governmental economics debate their divergent perspectives on the role of government and its fiscal functions. James M. Buchanan, who was influential in developing the research program in public choice, concentrates on the imperfections of the political process and stresses the need for rules to restrain governmental interference. Richard A. Musgrave, a founder of modern public finance, points to market failures and inequities that call for corrective public policies. They apply their differing economic and political philosophies to a variety of key issues. Each presentation is followed by a response and general discussion.

Broad in scope and carefully balanced in emphasis, this book is a major treatise on the theory and practice of public finance. It is unique in its presentation of a worldwide perspective and in its treatment of both the instruments of public finance and the goals, effects, and criteria of public finance measures. The book is divided into three parts. Book One defines the field, specifies the possible meaning of the "effects" of a public finance measure, and describes the criteria by which these measures are commonly appraised. Book Two is concerned with micro public finance and opens with a discussion of the theory of public goods in general. Each of the major free government services and types of transfer payments as well as the taxes that government employs are then examined. This section concludes with a chapter on the relevant aspects of government borrowing and inflationary finance. Book Three considers the major goals of public finance policy and describes how the various instruments described in Book Two can be used in achieving these goals. Among the topics treated are the use of appropriate instruments to resolve conflict in goals, conceptual problems of measuring the public finance sector and its maximum and minimum economic limits, consensus goals of equity full employment and Pareto-optimism use of resources, and goals that evoke conflicts of interest within any community. "A very scholarly book of genuine value to its field by Shoup, one of the outstanding authorities in public finance in the world."--Choice Carl S. Shoup was McVikar Professor of Political Economy at Columbia University. At General MacArthur's request he led the team creating modern Japan's tax system. He was described as "the dean of contemporary public finance experts." Steven Medema is professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Colorado at Denver. He is the author of Economics and the Law and Historians of Economics and Economic Thought and serves as editor of the Transaction Classics in Economics series.

Drawing from current examples from a variety of countries, Public Finance: An International Perspective addresses the main issues in contemporary public finance, including fiscal sustainability, state enterprises, and a variety of subsidies. There are relatively few textbooks on public finance, and many of them focus on the experience and issues facing the United States. This book sets out to address the critical issues from other countries, particularly those from the developing world or emerging market countries, who have received less attention in other texts. Written in a highly accessible manner, this book is a useful reference for students and practitioners alike.

Considers such issues as the effect of local government policies on migration, the optimal size of cities, tax and expenditure capitalization, the economics of intergovernmental transfers, tax exporting and tax competition.

Digitization promises to reshape fiscal policy by transforming how governments collect, process, share, and act on information. More and higher-quality information can improve not only policy design for tax and spending, but also systems for their management, including tax administration and compliance, delivery of public services, administration of social programs, public financial management, and more. Countries must chart their own paths to effectively balance the potential benefits against the risks and challenges, including institutional and capacity constraints, privacy concerns, and new avenues for fraud and evasion. Support for this book and the conference on which it is based was provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation “Click Download on the top right corner for your free copy..."

In this edition of famous textbook, much new material has been added to a general survey, in the light of recent fiscal developments, of the general theory of taxation, other forms of public revenue, public expenditure and public debts. There is chapter on modern theories of budgetary policy, as developed by Keynes and others, and a final chapter dealing with the author’s tenure of the British Treasury from 1945-47 which discusses the problems he encountered at that time, the policy pursued in his four successive budgets and, in particular, his controversial cheap money policy.