ROSEN 7e

PUBLIC FINANCE

Table of Contents:

Part One:  Introduction

1.   Introduction:

• Public Finance and Ideology
• Government at a Glance

2.      Tools of Positive Analysis:

• The Role of Theory
• Methods of Empirical Analysis
• Concluding Remarks

3.      Tools of Normative Analysis:

• Welfare Economics
• The First Fundamental Theorem of Welfare Economics
• Fairness and the Second Fundamental Theorem of Welfare Economics
• Market Failure
• Buying into Welfare Economics

Part Two:  Analysis of Public Expenditure

4.      Public Goods:

• Public Goods Defined
• Efficient Provision of Public Goods
• The Privatization Debate
• Education
• Public Goods and Public Choice

5.      Externalities:

• The Nature of Externalities
• Graphical Analysis
• Private Responses
• Public Responses to Externalities
• The US Response
• Implications for Income Distribution
• Positive Externalities

6.      Political Economy:

• Direct Democracy
• Representative Democracy
• Explaining Government Growth

7.      Income Redistribution, Conceptual Issues:

• Distribution of Income
• Rationales for Income Redistribution
• Expenditure Incidence

8.      Expenditure Programs for the Poor:

• A Quick Look at Welfare Spending
• Institutional Setting
• Issues in the Design of Welfare Programs
• The Earned Income Tax Credit
• Supplemental Security Income
• Medicaid
• Food Stamps and Child Nutrition
• Housing Assistance
• Programs to Enhance Earnings

9.      Social Insurance I:  Social Security and Unemployment Insurance:

• Why Have Social Insurance?
• Structure of Social Security
• Effects on Economic Behavior
• Long-Term Stresses on Social Security
• Social Security Reform
• Unemployment Insurance
• Conclusions

10. Social Insurance II:  Health Care:

• What’s Special About Health Care?
• The US Health Care Market
• The Role of Government
• The Twin Issues:  Access and Cost
• Should Government’s Role in Health Care Increase?

11. Cost‑Benefit Analysis:

• Present Value
• Private Sector Project Evaluation
• Discount Rate for Government Projects
• Valuing Public Benefits and Costs
• Games Cost‑Benefit Analysts Play
• Distributional Considerations
• Uncertainty
• An Application:  Are Reductions in Class Size Worth It?
• Use (and Nonuse) by Government

Part Three:  A Framework for Tax Analysis

12. Taxation and Income Distribution:

• Tax Incidence:  General Remarks
• Partial Equilibrium Models
• General Equilibrium Models
• Conclusions

13. Taxation and Efficiency:

• Excess Burden Defined
• Excess Burden Measurement with Demand Curves
• Differential Taxation of Inputs
• Does Efficient Taxation Matter?

14. Efficient and Equitable Taxation:

• Optimal Commodity Taxation
• Optimal User Fees
• Optimal Income Taxation
• Politics and the Time Inconsistency Problem
• Other Criteria for Tax Design

Part Four: The United States Revenue System

15. The Personal Income Tax:

• Basic Structure
• Defining Income
• Excludable Forms of Money Income
• Exemptions and Deductions
• Rate Structure
• Choice of Unit and the Marriage Tax
• Taxes and Inflation
• Treatment of International Income
• State Income Taxes
• Politics and Tax Reform

16. Personal Taxation and Behavior: 

• Labor Supply
• Saving
• Housing Decisions
• Portfolio Composition
• A Note on Politics and Elasticities

17. The Corporation Tax: 

• Why Tax Corporations?
• Structure
• Incidence and Excess Burden
• Effects on Behavior
• State Corporation Taxes
• Taxation of Multinational Corporations
• Corporation Tax Reform

18. Deficit Finance:

• How Big Is the Debt?
• The Burden of the Debt
• To Tax or to Borrow?

19. Taxes on Consumption and Wealth: 

• Retail Sales Tax
• Value-Added Tax
• Hall-Rabushka Flat Tax
• Cash-Flow Tax
• Efficiency and Fairness of Personal Consumption Taxes
• Income versus Consumption Taxation
• Wealth Taxes
• Estate and Gift Taxes

Part Five: Multigovernment Public Finance

20. Public Finance in a Federal System:

• Background
• Community Formation
• The Tiebout Model
• Optimal Federalism
• Property Tax
• Intergovernmental Grants

Appendix:  Some Basic Microeconomics

Glossary

References

Author Index

Subject Index