Book Description

In his foreword, Geoffrey Brennan states, "The papers in this volume represent a coherent set of pieces focused on aspects of public-expenditure theory and constitute all of Buchanan’s papers in this area.” Buchanan’s work on the subject of what governments should do and his insistence on Knut Wicksell’s ideal that taxation and public expenditure be integrated topics have contributed significantly to the current thinking of most economists on the topic. Geoffrey Brennan summarizes Buchanan’s central themes in this way, "There are two messages that emerge from this work: one is that a proper sense of the extent of market failure, rather than its mere presence, is relevant in all cases; the other is that 'correcting’ for such market failure is often a complex multidimensional business not captured by direct public provision at zero price and not necessarily involving expansion of market output.” The twenty-nine papers represented in this volume are grouped into these major subject categories: 1.Public Services and Collective Action 2.Externalities 3.Clubs and Joint Supply 4.Public Goods Theory 5.Applications--City, Health, and Social Security 6.Distributive Norms and Collective Action This volume also includes what are arguably Buchanan’s two most famous articles: "Externality,” which he wrote with William Stubblebine, and "Economic Theory of Clubs.” James M. Buchanan is an eminent economist who won the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1986 and is considered one of the greatest scholars of liberty in the twentieth century. ERRATA Unfortunately, after this book had been printed and bound, it was discovered that, due to a production error, the index contained some erroneous page numbers. Please click on the pdf file below to obtain the corrected index that should replace the index bound into the back of the book. When this volume goes back to press for a second printing, the index will be updated with the pages in this pdf file, and we will be pleased to send all buyers of the erroneous Volume 15 a corrected copy of the book at no extra charge. Click here for a pdf file of the corrected index. The entire series will include: Volume 1: The Logical Foundations of Constitutional Liberty Volume 2: Public Principles of Public Debt Volume 3: The Calculus of Consent Volume 4: Public Finance in Democratic Process Volume 5: The Demand and Supply of Public Goods Volume 6: Cost and Choice Volume 7: The Limits of Liberty Volume 8: Democracy in Deficit Volume 9: The Power to Tax Volume 10: The Reason of Rules Volume 11: Politics by Principle, Not Interest Volume 12: Economic Inquiry and Its Logic Volume 13: Politics as Public Choice Volume 14: Debt and Taxes Volume 15: Externalities and Public Expenditure Theory Volume 16: Choice, Contract, and Constitutions Volume 17: Moral Science and Moral Order