The Public Financiers: Ricardo, George, Clark, Ramsey, Mirrlees, Vickrey, Wicksell, Musgrave, Buchanan, Tiebout, and Stiglitz

ISBN-13: 9781137341334 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 244 str.

Colin Read

Opis

The Public Financiers is the sixth book in a series of discussions about the great minds in the history and theory of finance. While the series addresses the contributions of scholars in our understanding of modern finance, this volume addresses the development of public finance as a field of thought through the twentieth century. Public finance received little attention from English language scholars until the latter half of the 20th Century. From that time the discipline blossomed, and new thinkers added substantially to existing study and research. New perspectives on rents and profits, the burden of public finance and the mathematics of optimal taxation introduced a new field of thought within public finance. This book explores the great public financiers who brought the discipline back into popularity and described how tax systems can interact with economies with minimal distortion. It introduces the work of David Ricardo, Henry George, John Bates Clark, Frank Ramsey, William Vickrey, and James Mirrlees, who each added new insight to public finance. The book also examines the work of Knut Wicksell, Richard Musgrave, James Buchanan, Charles Tiebout and Joseph Stiglitz, who established how government can be designed to provide the public goods a modern economy demands. The author explains how the contributions of these great minds combined to equip modern thinkers with the intuition and knowledge necessary to account for and even drive the growing federal states of the 20th Century.

Spis treści

Preface to the Great Minds in Finance Series
Preface to this Volume
Introduction
PART I: FIRST FORAYS INTO TAX INCIDENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY 
1. The Early Life of David Ricardo
2. The Times
3. The Theory
4. The Later Life of David Ricardo
5. The Early Life of Henry George
6. The Times
7. The Theory – Progress and Poverty
8. Legacy and Later Life
9. John Bates Clark in Defense of the Status Quo
10. John Bates Clark and his Times
11. Later Life and Legacy of Henry George
12. Later Life and Legacy of John Bates Clark
PART II: FROM BURDEN OF TAXATION TO OPTIMAL TAXATION
13. The early years of Frank Plumpton Ramsey
14. The paper that spawned the study of optimal taxation
15. A short lifetime of contributions
16. The premature loss of a great mind
17. A Modern Extension – Vickrey and Mirrlees
18. The Early Life of William Spencer Vickrey
19. The Early Life of James Mirrlees
20. The Great Idea
21. Legacy and Applications
22. The Nobel Prize
23. The Later Years of James Alexander Mirrlees
24. The Later Years of William Spencer Vickrey
PART III: DIVERGENT ARGUMENTS FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR
25. The Early Life of Knut Wicksell
26. The Early Life of Richard Musgrave
27. The Early Life of James Buchanan
28. The Great Idea of Knut Wicksell
29. The Times and a New Role for Government
30. The Great Debate Between Musgrave and Buchanan
31. The Nobel Prize for James Buchanan
32. The Legacy of Knut Wicksell
33. The Later Years of Richard Musgrave
34. The Legacy and later Years of James Buchanan
PART IV: BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER: VOTING WITH THE FEET AND THE HENRY GEORGE THEOREM
35. The Early Life of Charles Tiebout
36. The Early Life of Joseph Stiglitz
37. The Times of Charles Mills Tiebout
38. The Great Idea of Charles Mills Tiebout
39. Applications and Extensions
40. The Early Death of Charles Tiebout
41. The Henry George Theorem
42. The Prize and Legacy of Joseph Stiglitz
Section Five – What we have learned
43. Conclusions
Glossary
Index
Endnotes

O autorze

Colin Read is a professor of Economics and Finance, former Dean of the School of Business and Economics at The State University of New York at Plattsburgh (SUNY), USA, and a columnist for the Plattsburgh New York Press Republican newspaper. He has a Ph.D. in Economics, J.D. in Law, M.B.A., Master's of Taxation, and has taught environmental and energy economics and finance for 25 years. Colin's recent books include BP and the Macondo Spill: The Complete Story, The Fear Factor, Global Financial Meltdown: How We Can Avoid the Next Economic Crisis, The Rise and Fall of an Economic Empire: With Lessons for Aspiring Nations, Great Minds in Finance – The Life Cyclists, Great Minds in Finance – The Portfolio Theorists, Great Minds in Finance – The Efficient Market Hypothesists, and Great Minds in Finance – The Rise of the Quants, Great Minds in Finance – the Corporate Financiers'.