Economics of the public sector / Joseph E. Stiglitz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stiglitz, Joseph E.

Contributor:

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Finance, Public--United States.

Finance, Public.

United States.

Fiscal policy--United States.

Fiscal policy.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 823 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

Third edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : W.W. Norton, [2000]

Contents:

1 The Public Sector in a Mixed Economy 3

The Economic Role of Government 4

What or Who is the Government? 12

Thinking Like a Public Sector Economist 14

Disagreements Among Economists 20

2 The Public Sector in the United States 26

Types of Government Activity 27

Gauging the Size of the Public Sector 39

Government Revenues 43

Deficit Financing 47

Playing Tricks With the Data on Government Activities 47

Part 2 Fundamentals of Welfare Economics 53

3 Market Efficiency 55

The Invisible Hand of Competitive Markets 55

Welfare Economics and Pareto Efficiency 57

Analyzing Economic Efficiency 63

4 Market Failure 76

Property Rights and Contract Enforcement 77

Market Failures and the Role of Government 77

Redistribution and Merit Goods 85

Two Perspectives on the Role of Government 88

5 Efficiency and Equity 93

Efficiency and Distribution Trade-Offs 94

Analyzing Social Choices 94

Social Choices in Practice 104

Three Approaches to Social Choices 114

Appendix Alternative Measures of Inequality 120

The Lorenz Curve 120

The Dalton-Atkinson Measure 122

Part 3 Public Expenditure Theory 125

6 Public Goods and Publicly Provided Private Goods 127

Public Goods 128

Publicly Provided Private Goods 136

Efficiency Conditions for Public Goods 141

Efficient Government as a Public Good 149

Appendix A The Leftover Curve 152

Appendix B Measuring the Welfare Cost of user Fees 154

7 Public Choice 156

Public Mechanisms for Allocating Resources 157

Alternatives for Determining Public Goods Expenditures 174

Politics and Economics 177

Appendix New Preference-Revelation Mechanisms 185

8 Public Production and Bureaucracy 189

Natural Monopoly: Public Production of Private Goods 190

Comparison of Efficiency in the Public and Private Sectors 198

Sources of Inefficiency in the Public Sector 200

Corporatization 206

A Growing Consensus on Government's Role in Production 208

9 Externalities and the Environment 214

The Problem of Externalities 215

Private Solutions to Externalities 217

Public Sector Solutions to Externalities 223

Protecting the Environment: the Role of Government in Practice 234

Part 4 Expenditure Programs 245

10 The Analysis of Expenditure Policy 247

Need for Program 248

Market Failures 249

Alternative Forms of Government Intervention 250

The Importance of Particular Design Features 252

Private Sector Responses to Government Programs 253

Efficiency Consequences 254

Distributional Consequences 258

Equity-Efficiency Trade-Offs 264

Public Policy Objectives 266

Political Process 267

11 Cost-Benefit Analysis 271

Private Cost-Benefit Analysis 272

Social Cost-Benefit Analysis 274

Consumer Surplus and the Decision to Undertake a Project 275

Measuring Non-Monetized Costs and Benefits 278

Shadow Prices and Market Prices 283

Discount Rate for Social Cost-Benefit Analysis 284

The Evaluation of Risk 289

Distributional Considerations 292

Cost Effectiveness 293

12 Health Care 300

The Health Care System in the United States 304

Rationale For a Role of Government in the Health Care Sector 308

Reforming Health Care 322

13 Defense and Technology 331

Defense Expenditures 333

Increasing the Efficiency of the Defense Department 338

Defense Conversion 341

Technology 342

14 Social Insurance 353

The Social Security System 356

Social Security, Private Insurance, and Market Failures 358

Should Social Security be Reformed? 363

Reforming Social Security 374

15 Welfare Programs and the Redistribution of Income 385

A Brief Description of Major U.S. Welfare Programs 386

Rationale for Government Welfare Programs 391

Analytic Issues 393

Welfare Reform: Integration of Programs 406

The Welfare Reform Bill of 1996 408

16 Education 420

The Structure of Education in the United States 423

Why is Education Publicly Provided and Publicly Financed? 426

Issues and Controversies in Educational Policy 428

Aid to Higher Education 441

Appendix How Should Public Educational Funds be Allocated? 446

Part 5 Taxation: Theory 449

17 Introduction to Taxation 451

The Five Desirable Characteristics of any Tax System 456

General Framework for Choosing Among Tax Systems 476

18 Tax Incidence 482

Tax Incidence in Competitive Markets 484

Tax Incidence of Environments Without Perfect Competition 498

Equivalent Taxes 502

Other Factors Affecting Tax Incidence 505

Incidence of Taxes in the United States 510

Appendix Comparison of the Effects of an Ad Valorem and Specific Commodity Tax on a Monopolist 515

19 Taxation and Economic Efficiency 518

Effect of Taxes Borne by Consumers 519

Quantifying the Distortions 521

Effects of Taxes Borne by Producers 529

Taxation of Savings 532

Taxation of Labor Income 535

Measuring the Effects of Taxes on Labor Supplied 541

20 Optimal Taxation 550

Two Fallacies of Optimal Taxation 551

Optimal and Pareto Efficient Taxation 552

Differential Taxation 562

Taxes on Producers 567

Appendix A Deriving Ramsey Taxes on Commodities 572

Appendix B Derivation of Ramsey Formula for Linear Demand Schedule 574

21 Taxation of Capital 577

Should Capital be Taxed? 579

Effects on Savings and Investment 582

Impact on Risk Taking 588

Measuring Changes in Asset Values 592

Part 6 Taxation in the United States 605

22 The Personal Income Tax 607

Outline of the U.S. Income Tax 608

Principles Behind the U.S. Income Tax 616

Practical Problems in Implementing an Income Tax System 622

Special Treatment of Capital Income 635

23 The Corporation Income Tax 645

The Basic Features of the Corporation Income Tax 647

The Incidence of the Corporation Income Tax and its Effect on Efficiency 648

Depreciation 659

Combined Effects of Individual and Corporate Income Tax 661

The Corporation Tax as Economic Policy 670

Taxation of Multinationals 672

Should There be a Corporation Income Tax? 673

24 A Student's Guide to Tax Avoidance 678

Principles of Tax Avoidance 679

Tax Shelters 684

Tax Reform and Tax Avoidance 687

Equity, Efficiency, and Tax Reform 690

25 Reform of the Tax System 693

Fairness 695

Efficiency 698

Simplifying the Tax Code and Reducing Administrative Costs 704

Transition Issues and the Politics of Tax Reform 711

Tax Reforms for the Twenty-First Century 714

Part 7 Further Issues 725

26 Fiscal Federalism 727

The Division of Responsibilities 728

Principles of Fiscal Federalism 732

Production Versus Finance 742

27 State and Local Taxes and Expenditures 754

Tax Incidence Applied to Local Public Finance 755

Capitalization 758

Public Choice at the Local Level 764

Problems of Multi-Jurisdictional Taxation 768

28 Deficit Finance 772

The U.S. Deficit Problem Since the 1980s 773

Consequences of Government Deficits 782

Improving the Budgetary Process 787

The Long-Term Problem: Entitlements and the Aged 789.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

0393966518

OCLC:

39485400