Pierre Pestieau surveys the views of the public-finance profession about its recent past and future directions. The many enthusiastic and positive responses he received brightened up his own prior pessimism about the field, although he remains concerned that the profession is distracted by elegant theoretical exercises that are too restictive to be instructive for important policy questions. As...

In presenting this dissertation as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree from Georgia State University, I agree that the Library of the University shall make it available for inspection and circulation in accordance with its regulations governing materials of this type. I agree that permission to quote from, to copy from or to publish this dissertation may be granted ...

The purpose of this part of the course is to study some simle public finance problems when there is heterogeneity in the population.These differences can be either in their productivity or in their value of leisure. Such differences imply that there is differences between individuals in their trade-off between leisure and work. It is assumed that the government cannot directly observe this diff...

A number of explanations are commonly presented in public finance texts a s reasons why government intervention in the economy will improve performance. This paper questions the validity of each of\them. The paper examines the merit goods argument, equity considerations, growth and development and stabilization and finds the arguments offered in their behalf to be unpersuasive. Public finance a...

The newly elected Labour government has pledged to ‘reinvigorate the Private Finance Initiative’, as part of the new emphasis on ‘public/private partnerships’ in the delivery of core public services. This article assesses the merits of using private finance to deliver public services against three criteria: whether it will lead to additional investment in social infrastructure, whether it repre...

Private finance of infrastructure grew substantially during the last twenty five years. Part of the growth has been caused by public-private partnerships (PPPs), which bundle investment and service provision of single public infrastructure projects into a long-term contract with a private single-purpose firm. Because most PPPs enjoy few economies of scope and assets are project specific, projec...