Public Finance(Tenth Edition)

[Book Description]

Public Finance benefits from the combined efforts of Harvey Rosen’s market-leading book and co-author Ted Gayer’s research and government agency experience. This combination of experience is able to explain as clearly as possible how the tools of economics can be used to analyze government expenditure and tax policies. This new edition incorporates recent developments and along the way takes students to the frontiers of current research and policy. While the information presented is cutting edge and reflects the work of economists currently active in the field, the approach makes the text accessible to undergraduates whose only prior exposure to economics is at the introductory level.

All of the changes in the Tenth edition were made to further the authors’ goal of providing students with a clear and coherent view of the role of government spending and taxation. The authors’ years of policy experience have convinced themselves that modern public finance provides a practical and invaluable framework for thinking about policy issues. The goal is simple: to emphasize the links between sound economics and the analysis of real-world policy problems.

[Table of Contents]

Part I Getting Started
1 Introduction
2 Tools of Positive Analysis
3 Tools of Normative Analysis

Part II Public Expenditure: Public Goods and Externalities
4 Public Goods
5 Externalities
6 Political Economy
7 Education
8 Cost-Benefit Analysis

Part III Public Expenditures: Social Insurance and Income Maintenance
9 The Health Care Market
10 Government and the Market for Health Care
11 Social Security
12 Income Redistribution: Conceptual Issues
13 Expenditure Programs for the Poor
 

Part IV Framework for Tax Analysis
14 Taxation and Income Distribution
15 Taxation and Efficiency
16 Efficient and Equitable Taxation

Part V The United States Revenue System
17 The Personal Income Tax
18 Personal Taxation and Behavior
19 The Corporation Tax