Public finance

The nineteen papers in this volume are all recent contributions to two traditional branches of public finance: allocation of resources between public and private sectors, and the distribution of income. The book as a whole gives a picture of public finance studies at the present stage of their evolution. It also provides some of the essential background reading in an undergraduate course in public finance. Included in Part One are Henry Simons' discourse on the case for progressive taxation, Kaldor's argument for the use of expenditure rather than income as the findex of taxable capacity, and Due's study of the wealth tax. Part Two deals with how the community's resources are to be distributed between satisfaction of public and private wants - this includes Pigou's argument for government intervention to improve market-determined allocation of resources, and Samuelson's now classic articles on the Pure Theory of Public Expenditure. In Part Three the effectiveness of taxes as opposed to loans is discussed: it includes Shoup's summing up of the "burden' controversy. One of the Readings in Part Four-which is devoted to the economic effects of taxes-is Stout's analysis of the lue Added Tax.