Handbook of Public Economics Volume 1 (Handbooks in Economics, No 4) (Handbooks in Economics)

The first volume of the Handbook of Public Economics contains eight essays on various topics in Public Economics by international leaders in the field. It begins with an historical perspective on the growth of the area as a whole, and subsequent essays focus on the theory and evidence about the impact of taxation on economic behavior. The material presents an up-to-date survey of the field of public economics by those actually doing work on the frontier of the subject, and is written in a manner that renders it useful to the public finance specialist, whilst remaining understandable for the student and non-specialist. Handbook of Public Economics......Page 4 Copyright Page......Page 5 Introduction to the Series......Page 6 Contents of the Handbook......Page 8 Contents of Volume I......Page 10 Editors' Introduction......Page 16 1. Introduction......Page 20 2. Public goods......Page 21 3. Equity in taxation......Page 34 4. Efficiency in taxation......Page 44 5. Shifting and incidence......Page 47 6. Stabilization and debt......Page 63 7. Conclusion......Page 72 References......Page 73 1. Introduction......Page 80 2. Measures of surplus and excess burden......Page 82 3. Evaluating the measures of excess burden......Page 92 4. The empirical measurement of excess burden......Page 102 5. The theory of optimal taxation......Page 105 6. Optimal taxation and the structure of preferences......Page 121 7. Further topics in optimal taxation......Page 129 8. Tax reform......Page 137 References......Page 143 1. Public pricing institutions......Page 148 2. Public pricing policies for welfare maximization......Page 154 3. Public pricing policies to achieve politicians’ and managers’ aims......Page 201 4. Conclusion......Page 223 5. Bibliographical note......Page 224 References......Page 225 1. Introduction......Page 232 2. The theory of labor supply with taxes......Page 234 3. Tax systems......Page 244 4. The econometrics of labor supply with taxes......Page 251 5. Results......Page 257 6. High-income groups......Page 268 7. Evidence from NIT'S and social security effects......Page 272 References......Page 280 1. Introduction......Page 284 2. Taxation and saving: Models of individual choice......Page 285 3. Taxation and saving: Aggregation and empirical estimation......Page 299 5. Social security, pensions and saving......Page 302 6. The incidence of taxation......Page 305 7. The optimum tax treatment of savings......Page 307 8. Taxation and risk taking: Portfolio choice......Page 312 9. Empirical studies of taxation and portfolio choice......Page 321 10. Other dimensions of risk taking......Page 322 11. General equilibrium and tax incidence......Page 324 12. The optimum taxation of risky assets......Page 325 13. Concluding remarks......Page 327 References......Page 328 1. Introduction......Page 332 2. Discrete comparisons of alternative equilibria......Page 339 3. Optimum taxation and tariffs......Page 350 4. Gradual reform of policies......Page 360 5. Multi-country trade policy problems......Page 371 6. Some further topics......Page 376 7. Empirical work......Page 383 References......Page 389 1. Introduction......Page 394 2. Methodological issues......Page 400 3. Housing behavior and the federal income tax......Page 406 4. Housing assistance......Page 427 References......Page 436 1. Introduction......Page 440 2. Outline of issues and instruments......Page 441 3. Fisheries......Page 449 4. Forestry......Page 459 5. Mining......Page 468 6. Crude oil and natural gas......Page 479 7. Hydro-electricity......Page 486 8. Conclusion......Page 489 References......Page 490 Index......Page 492 As a field, Public Economics is defined by its objectives rather than its techniques and much of what is new is the application of modern methods of economic theory and econometrics to problems that have been addressed by economists for over two hundred years. This title contains sixteen chapters that survey many of the developments in the field.