How should policy analysts assess 'benefit validity' when behavioral anomalies appear relevant? David L. Weimer provides thoughtful answers through practical guidelines. Behavioral economists have identified a number of situations in which people appear not to behave according to the neoclassical assumptions underpinning welfare economics and its application to the assessment of the efficiency of proposed public policies through cost-benefit analysis. This book introduces the concept of benefit validity as a criterion for estimating benefits from observed or stated preference studies, and provides practical guidelines to help analysts accommodate behavioral findings. It considers benefit validity in four areas: violations of expected utility theory, unexpectedly large differences between willingness to pay and willingness to accept, non-exponential discounting, and harmful addiction. In addition to its immediate value to practicing policy analysts, it helps behavioral economists identify issues where their research programs can make practical contributions to better policy analysis.

"Public sector organizations are about to enter one of the most challenging environments they have ever had to face as they bear much of the cost of the credit crunch. This timely book shows public sector leaders what they need to understand in order to be able to cope with these challenges"--

This book talks about the past realities, evolving roles and future directions of sovereign wealth fund (SWF) managers in these areas: Investment behavior of SWF managers up to this point due to their massive size: How sovereign wealth funds may behave differently from commercial investment houses managing comparable amounts of assets The evolving role of these SWF managers as "investors of last resort" during the Financial Crisis, and whether there are better ways to understand their investing behavior given that they can destabilize entire market segments Future market scenarios given the likely roles SWF managers going forward, when they may be the only type of entities available with sufficient balance sheets to offer a credible solution to the underlying cause of the Financial Crisis, which is global imbalance. Analyses in this book were developed by working with real-life portfolios of comparable size, making them realistic and useful for investors, allocators as well as policymakers to understand sovereign wealth investments as well as their investment and policy implications.

Economists commit a category mistake when they treat democratic governments as indebted. Monarchs can be indebted, as can individuals. In contrast, democracies can't truly be indebted. They are financial intermediaries that form a bridge between what are often willing borrowers and forced lenders. The language of public debt is an ideological language that promotes politically expressed desires and is not a scientific language that clarifies the practice of public finance. Economists have gone astray by assuming that a government is just another person whose impulses toward prudent action will restrict recourse to public debt and induce rational political action.

This book analyzes how the EU referendum in the United Kingdom came to pass and what the foreseeable consequences are for the UK, Europe, US and world economy. The Brexit decision represents a momentous event for Europe, which weakens the EU and shifts the global balance of power. Welfens argues the EU has lost its appeal and is not in keeping with the twenty-first century, which is being shaped by Asia and digital innovations. The subject of immigration from EU countries played a key role in the Brexit decision, with an anti-EU campaign that was profoundly biased. The estimated impact of the referendum was deeply distorted by the broadly inadequate information produced by the Cameron government, which omitted the expected 10 percent loss in income caused by leaving the EU. With this this information, there could have been a clear pro-EU majority. In the absence of a second referendum, one cannot know what the British electorate really wants. Both the Brexit decision and new President of the United States Donald Trump's approach to European disintegration dynamics also raise serious questions about the future of transatlantic relations.

This new edition restructures and updates the political economy view of the responsibilities and limitations of government. Public-choice and behavioural concepts are prominent. Gender issues are included. Technical concepts are explained from first principles. Economic theory is rigorously applied. Excessive technicality is avoided. The book integrates traditional public finance topics - taxation, public goods, externalities, and income redistribution - with political self-interest, bureaucracy, voting, rent seeking, corruption, and the common-pool problem of public spending. Social justice is viewed as income equality, equality of opportunity, or the right to benefit from one's own effort. Public policies studied include the environment, education, health insurance, welfare payments and entitlements under moral hazard, unemployment insurance, paternalistic impositions, and defence and public safety. This book is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses that combine economic theory with a real-world perspective on the politics of public finance and public policy. A broad scope makes the book suitable for students in all countries.

China's unprecedented growth has transformed the lives of its people and impacted economies across the globe. The financial system supported this growth by providing cheap loans to boost investment and, in a virtuous cycle, rapid growth insured that these loans could be repaid. However, in recent years, this virtuous cycle has turned vicious. The financial system has continued to lend freely and cheaply as the economy has slowed, and the risk of crisis has mounted. In response, the government has initiated the most ambitious financial reforms in twenty years. Financial markets, businesses and governments are concerned about these risks and are struggling to understand what the reforms will mean for China and the rest of the world. Debt and Distortion: Risks and Reforms in the Chinese Financial System addresses the need for an up-to-date and accessible, yet comprehensive analysis of China's financial system and related reforms. It will take a systematic look at China's financial system: how it worked in the past and how it will work in the future; why reforms are needed; what risks they bring; and their impact on China and the rest of the world. By analyzing the topic in terms of a few fundamental distortions, this book makes an otherwise complex topic accessible while simultaneously providing new insights. These distortions provide a simple framework for understanding the nature of the Chinese financial system and its future prospects. Reform in China will transform the world's second largest economy and impact everything from Peruvian copper mines to the London housing market. Business people, government officials, financiers and informed citizens would all benefit from understanding how changes in China's financial system will shape the global economy in the coming decades.

""This is a book no deal team should be without. It is a must for those involved in upstream oil and gas transactions, planning, budgeting, investment appraisal and portfolio management. Its step-by-step approach cuts through complexity, making it comprehensive and understandable by a wide range of users with a wide range of abilities. It can be used as a textbook, an introductory primer or as a handbook that you can dip in and out of or read cover to cover.""--Michael Lynch-Bell, Senior Advisor, Oil & Gas, Ernst & Young LLP; ex-officio Chairman, UN Expert Group on Resource Classification

In the upstream petroleum industry, it is the value of post-tax cashflows which matters most to companies, governments, investors, lenders, analysts, and advisors. Calculating these cashflows and understanding their "behavior," however, is challenging, as the industry's specialized fiscal systems can be complex, jargon-laden, and sometimes seem to be a "world of their own."

"Upstream Petroleum Fiscal and Valuation Modeling in Excel: A Worked Examples Approach" demystifies fiscal analysis which, unlike disciplines such as Earth sciences and engineering, can be learned from a book. Written in plain English for laymen and for experienced practitioners alike, it is a reader-friendly, clear, practical, step-by-step hands-on guide for both reference and self-paced study.

The book does not catalogue the 100+ different petroleum fiscal regimes in use at the time of writing. Rather, drawing on the authors' combined 48 years' experience, it takes a more timeless, generic treatment, by covering the most common variants of royalties, taxation, production sharing arrangements, bonuses and abandonment funding, through a dual approach: first, showing how to model them in Excel, and then providing interactive exercises to prompt (and answer) questions that analyze impacts on cashflows.

In addition to the main text, the book consists of over 120 Excel files (ranging from modular examples to full models) in Excel 2007 and 2003 formats; over 400 pages of supplementary PDF files; VBA features to enhance model functionality; and an introduction to risk modeling with exercises for the included trial version of Oracle's Crystal Ball software. It offers both a wealth of content and models equal to or surpassing what is available from fiscal modeling courses costing several times more; and greater insights into underlying calculations than commercially available "black box" fiscal software.

New US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules planned for 2013 will force petroleum companies to disclose more fiscal information on an individual country basis. This will make it more important than ever for analysts to understand how to model oil and gas terms and the potential impacts of the disclosed government payments on future oil and gas company profitability.

Due to the heavy use of graphics and cross references used in this particular text, some readers might find that the printed book offers a more optimal reading experience than certain e-formats particularly with the Kindle eMobi format."When purchasing this book for an e-reader, please email proof of purchase and delivery address to: [email protected] and Wiley will send your accompanying CD-ROM to you seperately. "

Originally published in 1991, user charges and earmarked taxes are methods by which people pay directly for the services they recieve from government. As such they are frequently supported by those who oppose increased taxation, who argue that they are more like market transactions than traditional forms of taxation. This book explores the cogency of these arguments in the light of public choice analyses of political processes.

Prior to the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008 Belgium's fiscal balances and debt ratios seemed to be on a firm consolidation path. Today, however, Belgium is facing a major budgetary challenge, albeit to a lesser degree than other European countries. A proper understanding of the current situation and the design of the most appropriate policy response always benefit from an in-depth analysis of the recent past. This book offers that closer look at the evolution of public finance in Belgium over the decade 2000 2010.

The Return of the Deficit presents a collection of original essays written by the best public finance scholars in Belgium. It covers Belgium s macroeconomic environment, its budgetary policy, changes to the tax system and social security, the evolution of public expenditure, debt management, and fiscal federalism This is the seventh volume in the authoritative History of Public Finance in Belgium published under the auspices of the Belgian Institute of Public Finance. It is introduced with a foreword by Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council.

Contributors: K. Algoed, Office of the Minister of Budget, Flanders; B. Cantillon, University of Antwerp; J. Deboutte, Public Debt Agency; E. de Callatay, Bank Degroof; A. Decoster, University of Leuven; F. Denil, Federal Ministry of Finance; G. De Smet, Federal Ministry of Budget; M. Gerard, Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve; N. Gilson, Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve; J. Hindriks, Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve; G. Langenus, National Bank of Belgium; G. Quaden, University of Liege; R. Savage, Federal Ministry of Finance; J. Smets, National Bank of Belgium; F. Thys-Clement, University of Brussels; C. Valenduc, Federal Ministry of Finance; F. Vandenbroucke, University of Leuven; A. Van de Voorde, Federal Ministry of Finance; L. Van Meensel, National Bank of Belgium; H. Van Rompuy, European Council"

The euro crisis made Europe's stateless currency falter. This book retraces and interprets the ways in which the crisis impacted the unique institutional set-up of Europe's Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). It argues that the crisis propelled the European continent towards the institutionalization of an unprecedented form of centralized authority: Europe's New Fiscal Union. Diving into the central functions of fiscal surveillance, financial assistance, lending of last resort and banking resolution, the book reveals how a covert and convoluted mutualisation process occurred in the shadow of the euro crisis management. Based on 62 interviews conducted by the author with senior policy-makers in Brussels, Frankfurt, Helsinki and Rome, the book claims that Europe's New Fiscal Union is largely unsettled and still unstable. It therefore engages with the challenges arising from the patchwork of newly adopted rules, instruments and bodies, suggesting crucial reform steps to make EMU sustainable.

This book is the first volume in a completely new public health book series, edited by the Institute of Health Economics (IHE) in Edmonton, Canada.

Written by leading experts in the field, "Financing Health Care: New Ideas for a Changing Society" offers a comprehensive overview of possible health care financing from an international perspective.

Starting with various funding methods, this important reference work also features sections on different health care payment and purchasing mechanisms, as well as equity issues.

This book is an invaluable resource for all medical and allied health professionals, and those working in health care industries, insurance, and economics.

The intergovernmental fiscal issue is highly relevant given the worldwide movement toward more decentralized governance in both industrial and developing countries. Over the course of five decades Japan has developed a robust system of decentralized governance. This book investigates fiscal decentralization and local finance in Japan with a view to understanding how the process of decentralization has unfolded there and what the rest of the world can learn. The author sheds light on the drives leading up to a need for decentralization reform over the last decade and evaluates so-called `Trinity Reform' implemented by the Koizumi administration during 2004-2006. Finally, the book considers the decentralization process in Asian developing countries and discusses what lessons might be drawn from Japanese experiences. This excellent study of an important subject area will be particularly useful for all those studying intergovernmental fiscal relations, public finance and public sector economics. It will also be of interest to specialist international organizations and policy makers who are involved in intergovernmental issues.

Congress annually considers several appropriations measures, which provide funding for numerous activities, for example, national defence, education, and homeland security, as well as general government operations. Congress has developed certain rules and practices for the consideration of appropriations measures, referred to as the congressional appropriations process. This book examines the procedural and legal issues associated with the authorisation of appropriations; the limitations in appropriations measures; omnibus appropriations; history of the appropriations subcommittee structure; automatic continuing resolutions; locating an agency or program within appropriations bills; and the causes, processes and effects of the shutdown of the federal government.

This textbook uses modern political economy to introduce students of political science, government, economics, and public policy to the politics of the policymaking process. The book's distinct political economy approach has two virtues. By developing general principles for thinking about policymaking, it can be applied across a range of issue areas. It also unifies the policy curriculum, offering coherence to standard methods for teaching economics and statistics, and drawing connections between fields. The book begins by exploring the normative foundations of policymaking--political theory, social choice theory, and the Paretian and utilitarian underpinnings of policy analysis. It then introduces game theoretic models of social dilemmas--externalities, coordination problems, and commitment problems--that create opportunities for policy to improve social welfare. Finally, it shows how the political process creates technological and incentive constraints on government that shape policy outcomes. Throughout, concepts and models are illustrated and reinforced with discussions of empirical evidence and case studies. This textbook is essential for all students of public policy and for anyone interested in the most current methods influencing policymaking today. * Comprehensive approach to politics and policy suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students* Models unify policy curriculum through methodological coherence * Exercises at the end of every chapter* Self-contained appendices cover necessary game theory* Extensive discussion of cases and applications

Fundamental change is taking place in the provision of welfare services in Britain. Government bureaucracies are losing their monopoly in such key areas as health, housing, community care and education. The Government agencies are increasingly acting as purchasers of services or as umbrellas for decentralised units. The command economy is being replaced by the quasi-market economy. This highly topical book assesses whether quasi-markets can deliver efficient and equitable public services and whether they represent a permanent break with the State's traditional role of welfare provider.

Like its current citizens, the United States was born in debt-a debt so deep that it threatened to destroy the young nation. Thomas Jefferson considered the national debt a monstrous fraud on posterity, while Alexander Hamilton believed debt would help America prosper. Both, as it turns out, were right.

"One Nation Under Debt" explores the untold history of America's first national debt, which arose from the immense sums needed to conduct the American Revolution. Noted economic historian Robert Wright, Ph.D. tells in riveting narrative how a subjugated but enlightened people cast off a great tyrant-"but their liberty, won with promises as well as with the blood of patriots, came at a high price." He brings to life the key events that shaped the U.S. financial system and explains how the actions of our forefathers laid the groundwork for the debt we still carry today.

As an economically tenuous nation by Revolution's end, America's people struggled to get on their feet. Wright outlines how the formation of a new government originally reduced the nation's debt-but, as debt was critical to this government's survival, it resurfaced, to be beaten back once more. Wright then reveals how political leaders began accumulating massive new debts to ensure their popularity, setting the financial stage for decades to come.

Wright traces critical evolutionary developments-from Alexander Hamilton's creation of the nation's first modern capital market, to the use of national bonds to further financial goals, to the drafting of state constitutions that created non-predatory governments. He shows how, by the end of Andrew Jackson's administration, America's financial system was contributing to national growth while at the same time new national and state debts were amassing, sealing the fate for future generations.

Richard Tresch's Public Sector Economics is a new learning and teaching concept for undergraduate public finance courses. It is published in two complementary parts: the book, which contains a unified treatment of the theory of the public sector along with selected examples. the companion website (included in the price of the book), which features a large international Public Sector Example Bank, written and updated by Richard Tresch and tied to specific sections in the book. This innovative solution to the challenge of conveying the fundamentals of such a wide-ranging field allows students the best of both worlds: a readable, concise, and penetrating account of public sector theory, along with an evolving set of up-to-date examples that makes the theory come alive.

These guidance notes describe good practice for conducting robust 'willingness-to-pay' (WTP) surveys in small towns, using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), as part of a demand-responsive approach to the supply of services. The urban water sector in low- and middle-income countries requires good quality data to justify future investment proposals; develop a better understanding of user perceptions and preferences; support the selection of preferred service options; and to set out the scope for future tariff increases. CVM surveys are a reliable means of generating such valuable information. Key areas covered in this book include how to design and implement a WTP survey, as well as how to best use the survey information to inform project design and policy-making. Its aim is to encourage wider use of WTP surveys, particularly for small towns where it is inappropriate to merely assume which service options users prefer and are willing to pay for. This book has been developed as part of the DFID Knowledge and Research project R7852 Optimised Management of Watsan Services in Small Towns.

Who and what a government taxes, and how the government spends the money collected, are questions of primary concern to governments large and small, national and local. When public revenues pay for high-quality infrastructure and social services, citizens thrive and crises are averted. When public revenues are inadequate to provide those goods, inequality thrives and communities can verge into unrest-as evidenced by the riots during Greece's financial meltdown and by the needless loss of life in Haiti's collapse in the wake of the earthquake. In The Public Good and the Brazilian State, Anne G. Hanley assembles an economic history of public revenues as they developed in nineteenth-century Brazil. Specifically, Hanley investigates the financial life of the municipality-a district comparable to the county in the United States-to understand how the local state organized and prioritized the provision of public services, what revenues paid for those services, and what happened when the revenues collected failed to satisfy local needs. Through detailed analyses of municipal ordinances, mayoral reports, citizen complaints, and financial documents, Hanley sheds light on the evolution of public finance and its effect on the early economic development of Brazilian society. This deeply researched book offers valuable insights for anyone seeking to better understand how municipal finance informs histories of inequality and underdevelopment.

Today, the most pressing challenges for public economics are of macroeconomic nature: pensions, debt, income distribution, and fiscal sustainability. All these problems are compounded by the phenomenon of demographic transition and aging. This graduate textbook addresses these issues with the help of state-of-the-art macroeconomic tools that are based on a sound microfoundation and rooted in empirical evidence. Different from the standard partial-equilibrium analysis in traditional textbooks on public economics, the concept of general equilibrium helps to account for compensating or amplifying side-effects of economic policy. GAUSS and MATLAB computer code as well as teaching material (slides) are available as downloads from the author's homepage.

An argument that under capitalism, debt has become infinite and unpayable, expressing a political relation of subjection and enslavement. Experts, pundits, and politicians agree: public debt is hindering growth and increasing unemployment. Governments must reduce debt at all cost if they want to restore confidence and get back on a path to prosperity. Maurizio Lazzarato's diagnosis, however, is completely different: under capitalism, debt is not primarily a question of budget and economic concerns but a political relation of subjection and enslavement. Debt has become infinite and unpayable. It disciplines populations, calls for structural reforms, justifies authoritarian crackdowns, and even legitimizes the suspension of democracy in favor of "technocratic governments" beholden to the interests of capital. The 2008 economic crisis only accelerated the establishment of a "new State capitalism," which has carried out a massive confiscation of societies' wealth through taxes. And who benefits? Finance capital. In a calamitous return to the situation before the two world wars, the entire process of accumulation is now governed by finance, which has absorbed sectors it once ignored, like higher education, and today is often identified with life itself. Faced with the current catastrophe and the disaster to come, Lazzarato contends, we must overcome capitalist valorization and reappropriate our existence, knowledge, and technology. In Governing by Debt, Lazzarato confronts a wide range of thinkers-from Felix Guattari and Michel Foucault to David Graeber and Carl Schmitt-and draws on examples from the United States and Europe to argue that it is time that we unite in a collective refusal of this most dire status quo.

This book provides comprehensive analysis and descriptions of China's ageing finance system . China is undergoing the largest, fastest and longest process of population ageing in the world. It becomes a pressing challenge to the Chinese social security system in this era. Many developed countries have been going through this process. Pension and other financial tools have been studied and practiced for decades. China now is developing its own ageing finance systems by learning from other countries' experiences and making innovations to suit the country's request. Finance, a field that deals with the study of investments and the science of money management, is the most important tool to manage this situation. And hence Ageing finance has been developed into an independent area for research and practice. It helps the country adapt to new elderly support systems which is the necessary result from China's admirable economic development and changes in population structure. Ageing finance is the sum of financial activities centered on various social need of providing for the aged and serving for their society. It includes pension finance,old age wealth management service and finance of ageing industry. Chinese government and people are facing a very unique situation as our population structure is deeply changed by the One Child Policy since last 70s. The slope of ageing curve is sharper than most countries yet it has achieved the most successful economic development in the world during the same period. Academic researchers, financial practitioners, and policy makers will find this book to be essential reading, as they study this process and look forward to new theories, innovations and lessons raised from it.

This important textbook has been revised and updated to continue its focus on the link between ethics and economic policy analysis, whilst ensuring that perspectives addressing the moral limits of the market, latest behavioural economics literature, and the changes in inequality over the years are included. Basic philosophical concepts are systematically described, followed by conventional welfare economic theory and policy, and applications to some topical economic problems such as income distribution and sustainable development.

Paul Goodman left his mark in a number of fields: he went from being known as a social critic and philosopher of the New Left to poet and literary critic to author of influential works on education (Compulsory Mis-education) and community planning (Communitas). Perhaps his most significant achievement was in his contribution to the founding and theoretical portion of the classic text Gestalt Therapy (with F. S. Perls and R. E. Hefferline, 1951), still regarded as the cornerstone of Gestalt practice.

Taylor Stoher's Here Now Next is the first scholarly account of the origins of Gestalt therapy, told from the point of view of its chief theoretician by a man who knew him well. Stoehr describes both Goodman's role in establishing the principal ideas of the Gestalt movement and the ways in which his practice as a therapist changed him, ultimately leading to a new vocation as the "socio-therapist" of the body politic. He places Goodman in the midst of his world, showing how his personal and public life - including his political activities in the 1960s - were transformed by Gestalt ideas, and he presents revealing sketches of other major figures from those days - Fritz Perls, Wilhelm Reich, A. S. Neill, and others.