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Books > Business & Economics > Finance & accounting > Finance > Public finance
This book, first published in 1985, investigates the enactment of the federal income tax as a case study of an important Progressive Era reform. It was a critical issue that likely divided people along socioeconomic lines, thus helping to provide insight into the debate over the 'class origins' of the reformist movement.
This engaging and accessible book is a must-read for every taxpayer, young and old. It explores the many forms of taxation; how taxes are created, collected, and spent; and why certain aspects of taxation are so controversial. "In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." Benjamin Franklin wrote this now-famous quote more than 200 years ago, and taxation remains just as important (and inevitable) today as then. Taxes are a fact of life for almost everyone, and the public goods and services they pay for are enjoyed by all citizens. While taxes are undeniably necessary, the specifics of what should be taxed, who should pay taxes, and at what rate remain hotly debated by economists, government officials, and regular citizens. The first in Greenwood's new Student Guides to Business and Economics series, Taxation gives readers an in-depth yet reader-friendly look at one of economics' foundational concepts. Using simple language and relevant real-world examples, the book explores the different forms of taxation, the necessary components of any tax, how taxes are created and collected, and much more. It also highlights contemporary controversies related to taxation, including whether or not "sin taxes" actually discourage unwanted behaviors like smoking and how best to simplify the tax filing process. Provides a concise and easy-to-read overview of a broad and foundational topic in economics Demonstrates to readers why taxes are important and helps them better understand how tax revenue is spent for the public good Includes a Questions for Further Discussion section designed to stimulate classroom discussion and encour-age critical thinking Offers an at-a-glance chronology of events related to the history of taxation, allowing readers to trace the evo-lution of ideas and practices related to taxation through history
Why, in the last decades of the twentieth century, did industralized nations witness recurring vast public deficits, even in times of peaceful international relations and economic growth? The essays in Politics, Institutions, and Fiscal Policy chart answers sought by economists, political scientists, and government officials. This groundbreaking book looks at states within five industrialized federations Canadian provinces, Swiss cantons, Belgian regions, German lander, and American states as case studies of variation in budget balances since 1980. The work s conclusion compares deficit levels between the federations studied. Politics, Institutions, and Fiscal Policy sheds new light on the role of such factors as spending and taxation levels and electoral and partisan cycles within the budget balancing process. Neatly written and theoretically grounded, this volume contributes greatly to our understanding of public finance and public administration."
This work, first published in 1913, deals with the causes which led to the imposition of the various taxes which were levied down to and including the first income tax act (1799). Indeed, for an understanding of the system of taxation of the nineteenth century a knowledge of that which preceded it is necessary. The author begins by an explanation of the Tudor and Stuart finances before the time of the civil war at which point the break-down of the former system, as well as the need for a much larger revenue, resulted in important changes in the method of taxation.
This study, first published in 1994, examines an important issue, the repeal of the thirty percent withholding tax imposed by the US on interest payments to non-resident alien individuals and foreign corporations, that is emblematic of the US quest for foreign capital in the 1980s. It presents an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary analytical approach to show how important the access to foreign capital had become on the eve of the US turning into a debtor nation.
In this book, first published in 1939, an analysis is given of the incidence both of partial income taxes, that is of income taxes which are levied on the incomes arising from particular lines of industry, and of a general income tax.
This book, first published in 1987, is a study of the political processes that underlie the determination of taxation - and much else - in the centuries-old government of Britain. Governments inherit a large legacy of policies, and it is the inertia force of past commitments that determine much of what a government does. This is especially true of taxation, and this book explores the forces at work on the policies of taxation. It also helps us understand what might be the future of taxation.
Economists studying comparative economic systems have generally neglected the important question of taxation in socialist countries. This is somewhat surprising since taxation plays an important role in the regulation of economic activity in these countries. This book, first published in 1985, aims to restore the study of taxation to its rightful role in comparative economic studies. It stresses the importance of taxation and the state budget and argues that these are tools of economic policy which complement central economic planning.
This book, first published in 1971, presents an analysis of the taxes levied on wealth or capital - death duties, annual wealth taxes and capital gains taxes. It provides a comprehensive study of these taxes, and recommends a series of measures, including the replacement of certain taxes, that would promote equality. The book also provides a masterly historical summary of death duties in the UK.
Entitlements represent one of the largest and fastest-growing portions of the federal budget. They are regarded as sacrosanct by lawmakers, yet many people see them as one of the greatest threats to the American Dream. T his volume argues that by sacrificing the future in order to pay ever-larger federal benefits through programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and federal pensions, entitlement spending has become a crushing burden to American workers. Peterson and Howe destroy myths surrounding entitlement spending. They show that the bulk of it does not go to the poor. The majority of the elderly are not needy and dependent. Entitlement programs, not defense spending, consume the largest share of the federal budget. In short, we cannot balance the budget without reducing entitlement spending. In a country that demands critical investments--improving public education, alleviating poverty, increasing professional opportunity--growth in entitlement spending is unaffordable. "On Borrowed Time" is an important and timely book that will be mandatory reading for policymakers, politicians, economists, and a general public concerned with its financial future.
People pay taxes for two reasons. On the positive side, most people recognize, even if grudgingly, that payment of tax is a duty of citizenship. On the negative side, they know that the law requires payment, that evasion is a crime, and that willful failure to pay taxes is punishable by fines or imprisonment. The practical questions for tax administration are how to strengthen each of these motives to comply with the law. How much should be spent on enforcement and how should enforcement be organized to promote these objectives and achieve the best results per dollar spent? Over the last few years, the U.S. Congress has restricted spending on tax administration, forcing the Internal Revenue Service to curtail enforcement activities, at the same time, that the number of individual filers has increased, tax rules have become more complex, and more business have become multinational operations. But if too many cases of tax evasion go undetected and unpunished, those who may have grudgingly paid their taxes may soon find it easier to join the scofflaws. These events in combination have created a genuine crisis in tax administration. The chapters in this volume evaluate the capacity of authorities to enforce the tax laws in a modern, global economy and examine the implications of failing to do so. Specific aspects of tax law, including tax shelters, issues relating to small businesses, tax software, role of tax preparers, and the objectives of tax simplification are examined in detail. The volume also builds a conceptual basis for future scholarship, with regard not only to tax administration, but also to such fundamental questions as whether taxpayers respond mostly to economic incentives or are influenced by their experiences with the filing process and what is the proper framework for evaluating the allocation of resources within the IRS.
Fiscal policy is an incredibly important tool for governments across the world, with many countries facing dilemmas in crafting fiscal policies to meet changing demographic needs, greater demands for social welfare and sudden spending due to shocks such as terrorism. This important book looks at fiscal policy in the Asian Pacific economies and with a broad array of contributors will be a useful tool to students, researchers and professionals working in international economics and finance.
Dick Netzer, a leading public finance economist specializing in state and local issues and urban government, brings together in this comprehensive volume essays by top scholars connecting the property tax with land use. They explore the idea that the property tax is used as a partial substitute for land use regulation and other policies designed to affect how land is utilized. Like many economists, the contributors see some type of property taxation as the more efficient means of helping to shape land use. Some of the essays analyze a conventional property tax, while others consider radically different systems of property taxation. The first paper sets the stage, modeling taxes on land and buildings in the context of a dynamic model of real estate markets. The remaining papers examine how various tax mechanisms and non-tax alternatives to regulating and determining land use, such as zoning and private neighborhood associations, complement or substitute for one another. Urban planners and economists interested in local public finance will welcome this comprehensive study.
This book presents a comprehensive analysis of tax consequences in an oligopolistic market. It provides the reader with a systematic and precise way of understanding the research content of tax incidence. A major feature of the book is its analysis of tax incidence from both domestic and international oligopolies. Then, by examining various oligopoly models, it approaches the essence of domestic and multilateral tax issues. Starting with the general theory of commodity tax incidence in an oligopoly, the topics addressed in this book include tax reform, environmental regulation, and policy coordination in international oligopolies. In addition to the usual oligopoly model, managerial oligopoly, the public pricing problem for firms in an oligopoly, and mixed oligopoly are dealt with. By presenting individual issues and explaining the relevance of each topic, this book is highly recommended for readers interested in policymaking and the global market in relation to the interdisciplinary developments of public economics, regional economics, and international economics. This book is also valuable as an advanced textbook on applied economics.
Developments in the NHS, Railtrack and London Underground have led to speculation about whether a new organisational form is now needed for public service delivery. There are several perceived problems with the conventional models, which have led to the increased involvement of the private and voluntary sectors in recent years. However, company and charity models were not designed with public services primarily in mind, so does Britain need a new type of orgainsation to protect the public interest while providing a stimulus to creativity, risk-taking and entrepreneurship? Does the current debate about new organisational forms, including the Public Interest Company model, contain the answer? The Public Management Foundation explores where the problems with public services lie, and the extent to which new forms might be the solution.
A distinguished interdisciplinary group of scholars examines the merits and shortcomings of Land-Value taxation, and how it compares and contrasts with the conventional property tax. The latter is shown as deterring enterprise to the detriment of employment and as pushing up the cost of improving property with inflationary consequences. The former, with evidence from places where it is already in use, is shown to encourage optimum land use, foster employment, and prevent urban sprawl.
How did today's rich states first establish modern fiscal systems? To answer this question, Political Transformations and Public Finances by Mark Dincecco examines the evolution of political regimes and public finances in Europe over the long term. The book argues that the emergence of efficient fiscal institutions was the result of two fundamental political transformations that resolved long-standing problems of fiscal fragmentation and absolutism. States gained tax force through fiscal centralization and restricted ruler power through parliamentary limits, which enabled them to gather large tax revenues and channel funds toward public services with positive economic benefits. Using a novel combination of descriptive, case study, and statistical methods, the book pursues this argument through a systematic investigation of a new panel database that spans eleven countries and four centuries. The book's findings are significant for our understanding of economic history, and have important consequences for current policy debates.
Floating-Rate Securities is the only complete resource on "floaters" that fills the information void surrounding these complex securities. It explains the basics of floating rate securities, how to value them, techniques to compute spread measures for relative value analysis, and much more.
Although estate and gift taxes raise a small fraction of federal revenues, they have become sources of increasing political controversy. This book is designed to inform the current policy debate and build a conceptual basis for future scholarship. The book contains eleven original studies of estate and gift taxes, along with discussants' comments. The essays provide background and historical information; analyze the optimal taxation of estates and gifts; examine the effects of the tax on charitable contributions, saving behavior, the distribution and level of wealth, tax avoidance and tax evasion; and explore the effects of alternatives to estate taxation.
"Fiscal Crisis of the State" refers to the tendency of government expenditures to outpace revenues in the U.S. in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but its relevance to other countries of the period and also in today's global economy is evident. When government expenditure constitutes a larger and larger share of total economy theorists who ignore the impact of the state budget do so at their own (and capitalism's) peril. This volume examines how changes in tax rates and tax structure used to regulate private economic activity. O'Connor theorizes that particular expenditures and programs and the budget as a whole can be understood only in terms of power relationships within the private economy. O'Connor's analysis includes an anatomy of American state capitalism, political power and budgetary control in the United States, social capital expenditures, social expenses of production, financing the budget, and the scope and limits of reform. He shows that the simultaneous growth of monopoly power and the state itself generate an increasingly severe social crisis. State monopolies indirectly determine the state budget by generating needs that the state must satisfy. The state administration organizes production as a result of a series of political decisions. Over time, there is a tendency for what O'Connor calls the social expenses of production to rise, and the state is increasingly compelled to socialize these expenses. The state has three ways to finance increased budgetary outlays: create state enterprises that produce social expenditures; issue debt and borrowing against further tax revenues; raise tax rates and introduce new taxes. None of these mechanisms are satisfactory. Neither the development of state enterprise nor the growth of state debt liberates the state from fiscal concerns. Similarly, tax finance is a form of economic exploitation and thus a problem for class analysis. O'Connor contends that the fiscal crisis of the capitalist state is the inevitable consequence of the structural gap between state expenditures and revenues. The state's only way to ameliorate the fiscal crisis is to accelerate the growth of the social-industrial complex. In his new introduction, O'Connor describes "The Fiscal Crisis of the State" as "the product of a unique combination of personal, intellectual, and political experiencesa." He goes on to explain the origins of his theory and the consequences of "The Fiscal Crisis of the State." He answers the question "is there a fiscal crisis today?" and discusses changes in fiscal policy since the '60s and '70s. James O'Connor is emeritus professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
The German state banks - or Landesbanks - are not only some of the largest banks in Germany but are also a dominant force in the international banking sector. These state-owned banks enjoy special privileges and government support which have made them major players in the global arena of banking and finance.Protected by the German taxpayer's seemingly bottomless pockets in the form of state warranties, Landesbanks are able to take part in financing some of the largest projects in the world. They occupy nearly fifty per cent of the top places in both Moody's and Standard and Poor's international rankings. Professor Sinn critically scrutinizes the privileges of the German Landesbanks and questions the justification of government intervention in the banking sector. He predicts that European integration and the introduction of the euro will lead to a fierce take-over battle between Europe's banks. He argues that, given the state warranties, it seems likely that the German Landesbanks will be among the winners in this battle and concludes that the German public banking system has grown far larger than is appropriate for a market economy. This timely book addresses issues of concern for European bankers and policymakers alike. It will also be of interest to students and scholars of financial economics, European integration and money and banking.
The Discretionary Economy argues that we do in fact control our own political and economic destinies. As a community, we have discretion over policies that determine whether an economic process adequately provides for the necessities of life. We also determine who participates in normative public judgments and whether decisions distinguish between what is and what ought to be. Tool argues that we must continuously organize the institutional structures through which economic and political functions in the social process are carried on. We must exercise discretion by creating and modifying institutions that coordinate our behavior. To exercise discretion effectively requires that we employ distinctively American economic, political, and philosophical theory. In this volume, the pivotal twentieth-century contributors to this encompassing theory of political economy are Thorstein Veblen, John Dewey, Clarence Ayres, and R. Fagg Foster. This volume presents, in detail, their analytical and philosophical perspective on social change. A major purpose of this volume is to compare and contrast the American tradition with the traditions of capitalism, Marxism, and fascism, demonstrating that the former can resolve compelling economic and political problems and the latter two cannot. This book explains how to identify and analyze social, economic, and political problems confronted in all communities, and how to go about framing and implementing structural adjustments in the political economy. It will be of interest to students in non-traditional courses in political economy including institutional economics, contemporary social problems, economics and social policy, methodology, and contemporary economic thought.
How do Australian governments budget? How well do they spend and manage our money? Governments seem to be locked in a constant struggle with the problems of budgeting. Cabinet never has enough resources to go around, and while some agencies 'guard' public expenditure, others find endless ways to make new claims on budgets.Managing Public Expenditure in Australia provides the first systematic analysis of government budgeting and the politics of the budgetary process. Drawing on extensive original sources, the authors examine debates and reforms in public finance from Whitlam and Fraser to Hawke, Keating and Howard, and assess their impacts on policy development. In tracking the way governments actually spend money, Managing Public Expenditure in Australia provides an alternate and complementary political history of federal government over the past forty years.This book also includes accessible discussions on topics such as budget theory, financial management in government, and debt and deficit reduction. An explanation of new resource management techniques and initiatives help to illuminate the ongoing changes to budget and expenditure management practices. This is an essential purchase for students, teachers and practitioners of public finance, and for anyone involved in the continuing debate over the nature and role of the public sector.
The Late Middle Ages (c.1300-c.1500) saw the development of many of the key economic institutions of the modern unitary nation-state in Europe. After the 'commercial revolution' of the thirteenth century, taxes on trade became increasingly significant contributors to government finances, and as such there were ever greater efforts to control the flow of goods and money. This book presents a case study of the commercial and financial links between the kingdom of England and the duchy of Aquitaine across the late-medieval period, with a special emphasis on the role of the English Plantagenet government that had ruled both in a political union since 1154. It establishes a strong connection between fluctuations in commodity markets, large monetary flows and unstable financial markets, most notably in trade credit and equity partnerships. It shows how the economic relationship deteriorated under the many exogenous shocks of the period, the wars, plagues and famines, as well as politically motivated regulatory intervention. Despite frequent efforts to innovate in response, both merchants and governments experienced a series of protracted financial crises that presaged the break-up of the union of kingdom and duchy in 1453, with the latter's conquest by the French crown. Of particular interest to scholars of the late-medieval European economy, this book will also appeal to those researching wider economic or financial history. |
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