At a time when there is growing concern in many countries over the funding of expanding public sectors, this new book examines the economics of public sector growth. Several chapters document changes in the size of the public sector over recent decades for major OECD and Third World economies. Subsequent chapters then explore prominent explanations including public choice perspectives, bureaucracy models, relative price effects and Wagner's Law and assess their contribution to current knowledge. The book also provides a number of new case studies of specific government activities - education,...