Public Economics in an Age of Austerity

Public Economics in an Age of Austerity PDF

Author: Tony Atkinson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-03-21

Total Pages: 112

ISBN-13: 1317700805

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Governments all round the world are facing problems with their public finances. At a time of austerity, how much should spending be cut and how much should taxes be raised? Does the national debt represent a burden for future generations? Should taxes on the rich be raised? This book examines how the tools of public economics can be applied to answer such key questions and to suggest alternatives to the austerity policies currently being pursued. The fiscal problems faced are not simply the result of the post-2008 economic crisis but reflect a deep-seated fault line in modern economies. There has to be fiscal consolidation to provide for an ageing population, increased investment in education, and climate change. The book describes how public economics can help us think about alternative ways of meeting this challenge. It casts doubt on conventionally held views, such as those concerned with top tax rates, the undesirability of taxing capital income, the targeting of child benefits, and the merging of income tax and social security contributions. The final part goes beyond national boundaries and considers global public economics, focusing on the pressing problem of financing development. The conclusion of the book is that there are significant choices to be made. Not all austerity packages are the same: there are alternatives. It would be possible to raise taxes more and to cut spending less. It is important to consider the full range of possible policies. In considering these alternatives, modern public economics provides a useful framework, but it has major limitations. Economists are too often prisoners within the theoretical walls they have erected and fail to see that important considerations are missing. Economists have paid too little attention to the ethical basis underlying their policy recommendations.

Public Economics in an Age of Austerity

Public Economics in an Age of Austerity PDF

Author: Anthony Barnes Atkinson

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781138018150

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Governments all round the world are facing problems with their public finances. At a time of austerity, how much should spending be cut and how much should taxes be raised? Does the national debt represent a burden for future generations? Should taxes on the rich be raised? This book examines how the tools of public economics can be applied to answer such key questions and to suggest alternatives to the austerity policies currently being pursued. The fiscal problems faced are not simply the result of the post-2008 economic crisis but reflect a deep-seated fault line in modern economies. There has to be fiscal consolidation to provide for an ageing population, increased investment in education, and climate change. The book describes how public economics can help us think about alternative ways of meeting this challenge. It casts doubt on conventionally held views, such as those concerned with top tax rates, the undesirability of taxing capital income, the targeting of child benefits, and the merging of income tax and social security contributions. The final part goes beyond national boundaries and considers global public economics, focusing on the pressing problem of financing development. The conclusion of the book is that there are significant choices to be made. Not all austerity packages are the same: there are alternatives. It would be possible to raise taxes more and to cut spending less. It is important to consider the full range of possible policies. In considering these alternatives, modern public economics provides a useful framework, but it has major limitations. Economists are too often prisoners within the theoretical walls they have erected and fail to see that important considerations are missing. Economists have paid too little attention to the ethical basis underlying their policy recommendations.

Politics in the Age of Austerity

Politics in the Age of Austerity PDF

Author: Wolfgang Streeck

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-05-09

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 0745670083

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In a world of increasing austerity measures, democratic politics comes under pressure. With the need to consolidate budgets and to accommodate financial markets, the responsiveness of governments to voters declines. However, democracy depends on choice. Citizens must be able to influence the course of government through elections and if a change in government cannot translate into different policies, democracy is incapacitated. Many mature democracies are approaching this situation as they confront fiscal crisis. For almost three decades, OECD countries have - in fits and starts - run deficits and accumulated debt. As a result, an ever smaller part of government revenue is available today for discretionary spending and social investment and whichever party comes into office will find its hands tied by past decisions. The current financial and fiscal crisis has exacerbated the long-term shrinking government discretion; projects for political change have lost credibility. Many citizens are aware of this situation: they turn away from party politics and stay at home on Election Day. With contributions from leading scholars in the forefront of sociology, politics and economics, this timely book will be of great interest to students and scholars throughout the social sciences as well as general readers.

The Age of Austerity

The Age of Austerity PDF

Author: Thomas Byrne Edsall

Publisher: Anchor

Published: 2012-01-10

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 0385535201

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One of our most prescient political observers provides a sobering account of how pitched battles over scarce resources will increasingly define American politics in the coming years—and how we might avoid, or at least mitigate, the damage from these ideological and economic battles. In a matter of just three years, a bitter struggle over limited resources has enveloped political discourse at every level in the United States. Fights between haves and have-nots over health care, unemployment benefits, funding for mortgage write-downs, economic stimulus legislation—and, at the local level, over cuts in police protection, garbage collection, and in the number of teachers—have dominated the debate. Elected officials are being forced to make zero-sum choices—or worse, choices with no winners. Resource competition between Democrats and Republicans has left each side determined to protect what it has at the expense of the other. The major issues of the next few years—long-term deficit reduction; entitlement reform, notably of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; major cuts in defense spending; and difficulty in financing a continuation of American international involvement—suggest that your-gain-is-my-loss politics will inevitably intensify.

The Age of Austerity

The Age of Austerity PDF

Author: Thomas J. Schoenbaum

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1781951454

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This provocative look at the global financial crisis argues that the United States, the European Union and Japan have intentionally and unwittingly adopted wrong-headed economic policies in a futile attempt to deal with sovereign debt resulting from the global financial crisis. It offers persuasive evidence of how the politics of austerity fail to encourage economic recovery, and proposes instead a number of alternative ideas and solutions. The book begins with a detailed breakdown of the financial crisis and the government response in the United States, with particular focus on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The author then puts forth a basic three-part plan calling for (1) fundamental tax and entitlement reform; (2) massive economic stimulus in the form of public and private investment to modernize the countryÍs aging infrastructures; and (3) mortgage relief to revitalize the nationÍs housing markets. The book concludes with specific policy proposals designed to achieve these goals and return the US economy to a state of full employment and robust economic growth. This timely and insightful volume will appeal to students and scholars of economics, public policy and finance, as well as anyone with an interest in the recent economic history of the United States.

Lectures on Public Economics

Lectures on Public Economics PDF

Author: Anthony B. Atkinson

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2015-05-26

Total Pages: 568

ISBN-13: 0691166412

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The definitive textbook on public finance—now back in print for the first time in years This classic introduction to public finance remains the best advanced-level textbook on the subject ever written. First published in 1980, Lectures on Public Economics still tops reading lists at many leading universities despite the fact that the book has been out of print for years. This new edition makes it readily available again to a new generation of students and practitioners in public economics. The lectures presented here examine the behavioral responses of households and firms to tax changes. Topics include the effects of taxation on labor supply, savings, risk-taking, the firm, debt, and economic growth. The book then delves into normative questions such as the design of tax systems, optimal taxation, public sector pricing, and public goods, including local public goods. Written by two of the world's preeminent economists, this edition of Lectures on Public Economics features a new introduction by Anthony Atkinson and Joseph Stiglitz that discusses the latest developments in the field and areas for future research. The definitive advanced-level textbook on public economics Examines the effects of taxation on households and firms Covers tax system design, optimal taxation, public sector pricing, and more Includes suggestions for further reading Additional resources available online

Handbook of Public Economics

Handbook of Public Economics PDF

Author: Alan J. Auerbach

Publisher: Newnes

Published: 2013-06-24

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 0444537600

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In the Handbook of Public Economics, vol. 5, top scholars provide context and order to new research about mechanisms that underlie both public finance theories and applications. These fundamental subjects follow the recent, steady movement away from rational decision-making and toward more personalized approaches to tax generation and expenditure, especially in terms of the use of psychological methods and financial incentives. Closely scrutinized subjects include new research in empirical (instead of theoretical) public finance, the methods for measuring taxes (both in revenue generation and expenditure), and the roles that taxes play in specific settings, such as emerging economies, urban settings, charitable giving, and among political entities (cities, counties, states, countries). Contributors look at both the "tax" and "expenditure" sides of public finance, emphasizing recent influences that psychology and philosophy have exerted in economics with articles on behavioral finance, charitable giving, and dynamic taxation. To a field enjoying rapid growth, their articles bring context and order, illuminating the mechanisms that underlie both public finance theories and applications. Editor Raj Chetty is the recipient of the 2013 John Bates Clark Medal from the American Economic Association Focuses on new approaches to both revenue generation and expenditures in public finance Presents coherent summaries of subjects in public economics that stretch from methodologies to applications Makes details about public economics accessible to scholars in fields outside economics

SOCIAL RIGHTS IN EUROPE IN AN AGE OF AUSTERITY

SOCIAL RIGHTS IN EUROPE IN AN AGE OF AUSTERITY PDF

Author: Stefano Civitarese Matteucci

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-08-07

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 1351791427

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This collection of essays examines the promise and limits of social rights in Europe in a time of austerity. Presenting in the first instance five national case studies, representing the biggest European economies (UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain), it offers an account of recent reforms to social welfare and the attempts to resist them through litigation. The case studies are then used as a foundation for theory-building about social rights. This second group of chapters develops theory along two complementary lines: first, they explore the dynamics between social rights, public law, poverty and welfare in times of economic crisis; second, they consider the particular significance of the European context for articulations of, and struggles over, social rights. Employing a range and depth of expertise across Europe, the book constitutes a timely and highly significant contribution to socio-legal scholarship about the character and resilience of social rights in our national and regional constitutional settings.

The Public Economy in Crisis

The Public Economy in Crisis PDF

Author: June A. Sekera

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-07-04

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 3319404873

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This Brief proposes a new theory of public economics which deemphasizes reliance on the free market and affirms the importance of public goods and services within the context of the democratic process and constitutional governance. Public non-market production makes up from a quarter to more than half of all economic activity in advanced democratic nation-states. Yet by imposing market precepts on the public domain, as mainstream economics, political science, and public administration do, public governing capacity is weakened and the democratic system suffers. Agencies originally created to meet public needs are being warped into entities whose purpose is to generate revenue and, in some cases, deliver private profits at public expense. Drawing on classic public finance literature, this book illustrates the differences between public economy and the market model and why those differences matter. Building on this, the Brief sketches the elements of a new theory of the public non-market and illuminates its connections to the delegation of power and collective provision of resources from the polity. This book will be useful to scholars of public economics, political science, and public administration as well as policy makers and those working in the public sector.

Austerity: a Journey to an Unknown Territory

Austerity: a Journey to an Unknown Territory PDF

Author: Roland Sturm

Publisher: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783848738496

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Austerity is still a hotly debated topic that cannot be reduced to cuts in public spending. On the contrary, austerity is a complex terrain that stretches across economic, political and cultural dimensions. Some observers, therefore, speak of an 'Age of Austerity'. But the causes and consequences of this central issue of our time remain controversial. Supporters of austerity argue that it is a rational way back to financial sustainability and economic growth, whereas critics think that it is a dangerous neo-liberal idea that "bites" or even "kills". This book combines tools from linguistics, economics and political science to deal with the complexity of the different lands of austerity and the scientific "tribes" that live in them. This combination allows the book's authors to find an innovative way through the still rather unchartered territory of austerity.