Public Microeconomics

This book contains a concise, simple, yet precise discussion of externalities, public goods and insurance. Rooted in the first fundamental theorem of welfare economics and in noncooperative equilibrium, it employs elementary calculus. The book presents established theory in novel ways, and offers the tools for the application of the social welfare criteria of efficiency and equity to environmental economics, networks, bargaining, political economy, and the pricing of public goods and public utilities. This innovative, user-friendly textbook will be of use over a broad range of disciplines. The applications found here include international global-warming issues (North vs. South model), and bargaining over externalities (Coase's theorem). This text also introduces the Wicksell-Lindahl model in its original form, which depicts the parliamentary negotiation between representative parties and provides an effective introduction to political economy. Later, these ideas are applied to the pricing of an excludable public good, revealing the theoretical connection between public utility pricing and the pricing of excludable public goods. The text integrates three forms of discourse: verbal, graphical, and formal. Elementary calculus is frequently used, allowing for clarity and precision; qualities that are often missing in conventional textbooks. The main text considers a finite number of consumers and appendices cover the continuum mathematical model, which is implicit in the references to the 'marginal consumer' found in traditional texts. The analysis found in Public Microeconomics is simple and operational, conducive to computationally easy examples and exercises. This textbook is ideally suited to graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses in economics, political science, policy and philosophy.

Fourth Edition

This book shows, from start to finish, how microeconomics can and should be used in the analysis of public policy problems. It is an exciting new way to learn microeconomics, motivated by its application to important, real-world issues. Lee Friedman's modern replacement for his influential 1984 work not only brings the issues addressed into the present but develops all intermediate microeconomic theory to make this book accessible to a much wider audience. Friedman offers the microeconomic tools necessary to understand policy analysis of a wide range of matters of public concern--including the recent California electricity crisis, welfare reform, public school finance, global warming, health insurance, day care, tax policies, college loans, and mass transit pricing. These issues are scrutinized through microeconomic models that identify policy strengths, weaknesses, and ideas for improvements. Each chapter begins with explanations of several fundamental microeconomic principles and then develops models that use and probe them in analyzing specific public policies. The book has two primary and complementary goals. One is to develop skills of economic policy analysis: to design, predict the effects of, and evaluate public policies. The other is to develop a deep understanding of microeconomics as an analytic tool for application--its strengths and extensions into such advanced techniques as general equilibrium models and pricing methods for natural monopolies and its weaknesses, such as behavioral inconsistencies with utility-maximization models and its limits in comparing institutional alternatives. The result is an invaluable professional and academic reference, one whose clear explanation of principles and analytic techniques, and wealth of constructive applications, will ensure it a prominent place not only on the bookshelves but also on the desks of students and professionals alike.

Microeconomics for Public Managers presents a rigorous non-mathematical introduction to the study of microeconomics geared towards managers of nonprofit institutions. Provides an introduction to the economist’s toolkit for students destined for not-for-profit enterprises and public institutions Topics are selected for their relevance to the non-profit sector, enabling key issues to be covered in greater depth than standard microeconomic textbooks Pertinent case studies and cost-benefit analysis are utilized throughout Features end-of chapter problem sets and study questions Describes economic decision-making applicable to non-profit managers Accompanying website with instructor materials is available at www.blackwellpublishing.com/keating

John Levy's text presents microeconomic theory for use in analyzing and formulating public policy. It couples a direct and non-intimidating approach to essential theory with a presentation that is sophisticated at the policy level. It does not attempt to cover the entire body of economic theory, but rather presents those elements of theory most relevant to courses in public economics and public policy in such programs as public administration, policy analysis, health planning, environmental management, urban affairs, and urban planning. The text is divided into two parts. The first introduces basic concepts with an emphasis on their philosophical underpinnings and policy uses; the second consists of six essays on policy-related subjects, selected to make use of concepts presented in the first part. Among the unusual features of the book are the discussion of the tax expenditure concept, benefit cost analysis with numerical example, substantial discussions of the origins and philosophical implications of economic man as a behavioral model, and an entire chapter devoted to public choice.