Book Description

Understanding United States Government Growth develops and tests alternative explanations of government growth since World War II. It opens with an analysis of debate about the causes and consequences of government growth, including the excessive government view that the public sector has grown beyond the scope demanded by citizens due to its own structural defects, and the responsive interpretation that government has gown because it has reacted appropriately to external public demands. The authors review the major political and economic explanations for government growth and criticize earlier empirical attempts to test these explanations. In the second half of the book, they distinguish four components of government growth: growth in the cost of government and growth in the scope of government activities in three domains--transfer payments, domestic purchases, and defense purchases. Both responsive and excessive explanations of each of these components of growth are developed and tested to allow an evaluation of the validity of the two contrasting views about "big government". ... Read more

Book Description

Daniel A. Smith exposes the truth about the American tax revolt. Contrary to conventional wisdom, recent ballot initiatives to limit state taxes have not been the result of a groundswell of public outrage; rather, they have been carefully orchestrated from the top down by professional tax crusaders: political entrepreneurs with their own mission.

These faux populist initiatives--in contrast to genuine grassroots movements--involve minimal citizen participation. Instead, the tax crusaders hire public relations firms and use special interest groups to do the legwork and influence public opinion. Although they successfully tap into the pervasive anti-tax public mood by using populist rhetoric, these organizations serve corporate interests rather than groups of concerned neighbors. The author shows that direct democracy can, ironically, lead to diminished public involvement in government.

Smith looks at the key players, following the trail of money and power in three important initiatives: Proposition 13 in California (1978), Proposition 2 1/2 in Massachusetts (1980), and Amendment 1 in Colorado (1992). He provides a thorough history of tax limitation movements in America, showing how direct democracy can be manipulated to subvert the democratic process and frustrate the public good. ... Read more

Book Description

The choice of currency denomination, indexation, and maturity structure of public debt is an increasingly important aspect of policy in a world of high debts and and financially integrated markets. This book surveys theories and evidence on public debt composition and debt returns with the goal of emphasizing the main policy issues. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

From the book jacket:
Aaron Wildavsky's greatest concern, as expressed in his writings, is how people manage to live together. This concern may at first appear to have little to do with the study of budgeting, but for Wildavsky, budgeting made living together possible. Indeed, as he argues here, if you cannot budget, you cannot govern.

Budgeting and Governing gathers in one place a mass of material that otherwise would be lost in a wilderness of journals and edited volumes. With few exceptions, Wildavsky chose the articles in this collection. They are organized largely chronologically, so that the reader can trace the progression of his thought, which moved from studies of the American federal government, through comparative work, and on to placing budgeting within a broader theory of political culture.

Wildavsky wrote about budgeting because, in his words, "when a process involves power, authority, culture, consensus, and conflict, it captures a great deal of national political life." Wildavsky was interested in budgeting because of what it could tell us about the classic questions of politics: who gets what, how, and why? His earlier analyses focus narrowly on budgeting personnel and agency actors in answering these questions, while in his later work, the contending actors become sub-cultural types.

To Wildavsky, budgeting was about finding terms for living together in spite of ideological differences. Budgetary incrementalism helped to manage this otherwise unmanageable task. He thought synoptic budgeting and all related reforms would increase disagreement and raise the stakes, and so were unwise. Analysis had to serve politics, not try to displace it. ... Read more

Book Description

This volume explores life once Europe shares the same currency.Some of the best European and American economists use available theories and data, including historical evidence, to look at the operation of monetary and fiscal policy, at the effects of shocks and at the international role of the euro.The book will serve as the reference for understanding the early challenges of EMU.Kenneth Rogoff (Princeton University) discusses the role of the EU in the world's underground economy, suggesting that it is quite plausible for approximately one-half of euro currency to be held outside the legal domestic economy of Europe, and this is fostered by the plan of issuing large euro denomination notes. Barry Eichengreen (University of California, Berkeley) and Charles Wyplosz (Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva) analyze whether a Stability Pact is really needed in order to underpin EMU, provide new evidence on whether the Pact will reduce financial contagion, and assess how much the ceiling on budget deficits will exacerbate normal cyclical recessions.Antonio Fatés (INSEAD, Fontainebleau) examines the correlation and persistence of shocks, and their implications for potential fiscal flows within EMU.He argues that the benefits that a European-wide fiscal federation would add to the output smoothing that individual countries can achieve via their own fiscal policy do not compensate the costs associated with its implementation.Rudiger Dornbusch (MIT), Carlo Favero (IGIER, Universita Bocconi) and Francesco Giavazzi (IGIER, Universita Bocconi) challenge previous estimates of asymmetries in monetary transmission across potential EMU members, relate their new estimates of asymmetry to differences in financial structure, and discuss implications for a common monetary policy in EMU.Richard Portes (London Business School) and Hélène Rey (Centre for Economic Performance, LSE) examine whether the euro will displace the US dollar as the world's leading currency.Looking at synergies between financial and foreign exchange markets, they conclude that the most likely ultimate outcome is a bipolar world, where the euro and the dollar share leadership.Marc Flandreau (OFCE, Paris), Jacques Le Cacheux (OFCE, Paris) and Frédéric Zumer (Service d'Étude de l'Activitie Economique, Paris) ask if there are lessons to be learnt from the Gold Standard period when all currencies were 'permanently' tied to gold, yet there were no policy rules similar to the Stability Pact. They find that numerous countries at the periphery of Europe were forced to suspend convertibility in the wake of serious public debt build-ups in the mid-1890s, but that once they re-entered, fiscal discipline was strictly enforced.Maurice Obstfeld and Giovanni Peri (both at University of California, Berkeley) use regional data to document how slowly regions within European countries respond to shocks, discuss consequent pressures for fiscal transfers, and assess the extent to which EMU exacerbates these problems. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent
Very comprehensive. A masterpiece. ... Read more

Book Description

Farrokh Langdana makes an important contribution to the understanding of this complex area by presenting a consistent economic framework for analyzing the effects and implications of large bond-financed deficits. He uses an open-economy rational expectations model to explore to what extent governments can simply CCCC"roll-overCCCC" debt by issuing more bonds without any help from the monetary authority and examines the impact of foreign capital on the sustainability of domestic budget deficits, the behavior of exchange rates, and the possible effects of fiscal and monetary policies. This model is placed in the context of the major economic orthodoxies and their competing stances, and also of the American monetary history from Truman to Reagan and the crash of 1987. ... Read more

Book Description

This text draws on research in economics, political science, and policy analysis to show why state and local public finance has assumed such an important role in domestic fiscal policy matters. Traditional topics such as the theories of taxation and intergovernmental grants are combined by Raimondo with numerous overlooked subjects to reveal the dynamic and complex nature of state-local government fiscal behavior. Among the topics discussed are regional economic performance and state-local government finance; state and local taxes on property, sales, and personal income; user charges and gambling revenues; and the beneficiaries of local governments. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A Great Author - A Great Book
An excellent text on the fundamentals of public finance as applied to state and local government. The author's own personal style, which is both engaging and rigorous, makes the subject matter an accessible read for those students of public policy who are non-economists. For those who do have a particular bent for public finance it is also an excellent resource which provides a very applied approach to the subject matter.

Yes...economics can be fun!!
Author makes economics fun and interesting. Shows a great grasp for local and state taxation issues--makes boring topic easy to understand. ... Read more

Book Description

This book argues that it is not alway true that current account deficits are intrinsically bad and in need of serious correction. John Pitchford analyzes a broad range of issues in support of this argument, discussing approaches to current account balance, short run issues, longer run issues and policy. This counterbalance to a common misapprehension in economic theory will be a valuable guide for students of international monetary theory. ... Read more

Book Description

Monetary policy in developing countries is largely based on a system introduced in the 1960's. Emancipating the Banking System and Developing Markets for Government Debt illustrates how this outdated system has led to financial repression and suggests some alternatives. Maxwell Fry is one of the leading experts in this area. His book will provide a much-needed study for those studying development and finance economics at an advanced level. ... Read more

Book Description

The sound management of public finances is, in Williams' view, the most important factor in attaining the twin objectives of economic growth and improvement in the standard of living in small open developing economies. While looking at the challenges of public finance management in small states, with a focus on Barbados, this book suggests strategies of fiscal and microeconomic management for small economies that will permit them to ensure macroeconomic stability while promoting economic growth and development. ... Read more

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Love Has No Bounds
Jeanne Patricia Beggins shares her heart with us in this touching read, "A Book of James."
Giving birth to twins, this family is given the devastating news that little James's brain has not fully developed and his prognoses is not good. Taking his little sister home, the family begins a journey with James as they struggle to come to terms with a situation they cannot change.
The author shares her thoughts and those of others in a personal journal that was kept during this emotional time. She shares the joys they had with their son, a tiny smile or watching him sleep, and shows the importance of every single moment we have with someone we love.She also shares the heartbreak of his struggle to live, which became a losing battle.
I congratulate this family for their courage in sharing with others their personal tragedy and their road to recovery during such a traumatic time in their lives. I believe this work will help other families who are going through such a crisis, giving them a drink of cool water in a dry and thirsty land. One day they will surely see their James again; I am so glad they hold onto that promise.
Shirley Johnson

A Moving Story of Love and Dedication...
This book is a compilation of letters visitors wrote in a journal to James, infant son of Jeanne and James Beggins. Jameswas a pallative care patient.Included also, are personal journal writings in which Jeanne wrote her feelings in dealing with the impending, devastating loss.Jeanne's hope is that other parents in similar situations will know there are people who care and that one day they will all be reunited with their "angels." ... Read more

Book Description

This is an expose of government's wasteful spending practices, from the perspective of the "man on the street." The author and his researchers pit themselves against government bureaucracy as part of a unique study to determine what actually happens when a Canadian citizen inquires into the nature of government spending. The disturbing truth: the ordinary Canadian citizen is excluded from the process. ... Read more