This Handbook explores and explains new developments in the 'second generation' theory of public finance, in which benevolent rulers and governments have been replaced by personally motivated politicians and the associated institutions. In other words, the normative approach has largely given way to a political economy approach which emphasizes the importance of institutional arrangements and information flows to ensure there are appropriate incentives and sanctions to generate good governance.Following a comprehensive introduction by the editors, the renowned contributors present fresh and original perspectives on the key multi-level issues, along with recent developments in theory and practice, as they relate to taxes, budget systems, the management of liabilities and macroeconomic stability. The book also explores special issues concerning the poor and marginalized, structural change and the environment, natural disasters, and the task of overcoming conflicts whilst keeping countries together. The Handbook is organized along three broad themes which elucidate: - the different interpretations and approaches to fiscal federalism - the design of policies and institutions that govern the working of multilevel systems - the emerging challenges to decentralized systems. The Handbook seeks to provide an unparalleled review of the latest literature on the broad subject of fiscal federalism and the role of policies and institutions in creating sustainable outcomes. It will prove an indispensable guide to researchers, practitioners, and policy makers seeking informed policy options. Contributors: E. Ahmad, F. Ambrosanio, R.W. Bahl, P. Bardhan, R.M. Bird, R. Birner, H. Bloechliger, R. Boadway, M. Bordignon, A.Breton, G. Brosio, R. Congleton, B. Dafflon, S. Dalmazzone, P. Castaneda Dower, T.J. Goodspeed, J.F. Linn, B. Lockwood, J. Martinez-Vazquez, D. Mookherjee, C. Poeschl, F. Revelli, P. Salmon, P.B. Spahn, T. Ter-Minassian, J. von Braun, S. Weber, J.D. Wilson

The financial sustainability of the welfare state, its efficiency in covering new risks and to effectively reallocate resources in a fair way are now classic issues for debate. This book explores the more understated question of the democratic legitimacy of a 'quasi' European policy in a field which is subjected to the contradictory impact of ever tighter European economic governance. With the wide vision of a comparative perspective and the deep knowledge of social policy scholars, the authors of this book offer inspiring insights into different facets of democratic governance which are likely to inform European decision makers in the coming decade.' - Agnes Hubert, member of the Bureau for European Policy Advisors - European CommissionThe welfare state in Europe has been reformed gradually over the past two decades, with the intensification of the economic and monetary union and the addition of fifteen new members to the EU. This book explores the pressures that have been placed on the welfare state through a variety of insightful and thought-provoking contributions. As the standard of living has increased, aspirations and financial constraints have required major rethinking. There is considerable disparity between European countries in how they approach the welfare system, with differing concern over aspects such as income, employment and the ability to participate in society. Choices over welfare lie at the heart of the democratic system; this book explores the tensions this has produced and the innovative responses in policy content and institutions. The Changing Welfare State in Europe has a wide appeal, which will have relevance to economists, scholars in public and social policy, public and private finance experts, policymakers and also academics with an interest in the impact of financial and economic development. Contributors: T. Altman, C. Cheyne, K. Lyons, D.G. Mayes, A. Michalski, Z. Mustaffa, C. Shore, M. Thomson

The concepts of innovation and export are traditionally considered in isolation, both within companies and within the support organizations dedicated to them. As a result, within this broad research field, very little academic work has focused on how to implement their relationship at an operational level. This book proposes a joint diagnostic tool for SMEs, highlighting good practices to be mastered in order to simultaneously improve innovation and export performance, in the form of a virtuous circle. Innovation and Export focuses on the integration of innovation and export into the strategic management of SMEs, for which the use of synergies is a powerful lever to overcome any difficulties in mobilizing significant resources.

Serving as an introduction to one of the "hottest" topics in financial crime, the Value Added Tax (VAT) fraud, this new and original book aims to analyze and decrypt the fraud and explore multi-disciplinary avenues, thereby exposing nuances and shades that remain concealed by traditional taxation oriented researches. Quantifying the impact of the fraud on the real economy underlines the structural damages propagated by this crime in the European Union. The 'fruadsters' benefit when policy changes are inflicted in an economic space without a fully fledged legal framework. Geopolitical events like the creation of the Eurasian Union and 'Brexit' are analyzed from the perspective of the VAT fraud, thereby underlining the foreseeable risks of such historical turnarounds. In addition, this book also provides a unique collection of case studies that depict the main characteristics of VAT fraud. Introduction to VAT Fraud will be of interest to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners. It addresses the topics with regards to banking and finance law, international law, criminal law, taxation, accounting, and financial crime. It will be of value to researchers, academics, professionals, and students in the fields of law, financial crime, technology, accounting and taxation.

State and Local Public Finance provides a comprehensive and sophisticated analysis of state and local government public finance practices and issues, using the basic tools of economics. This fifth edition maintains its focus on key local services such as education, health care, and transportation and brings in new coverage of land use and housing, applications from behavioral economics, and more international comparisons. This textbook provides an examination and analysis of public finance practices and problems in a federal fiscal system, focusing on the fiscal behavior and policies of state and local governments. Modern economic theory is applied to examine the way key institutions are used to produce and finance services and to provide evaluation of alternative policies. This stalwart text will continue to be invaluable reading for those who study public finance, local government finance, urban economics, public policy, and public administration.

Budgeting has long been considered a rational process using neutral tools of financial management, but this outlook fails to consider the outside influences on leaders' behavior. Steven G. Koven shows that political culture (moralistic, traditionalistic, individualistic) and ideological orientations (liberal vs. conservative) are at least as important as financial tools in shaping budgets.

Koven examines budget formation at the national, state, and local levels to demonstrate the strong influence of attitudes about how public money should be generated and spent. In addition to statistical data, the book includes recent case studies: the 1997 budget agreement; Governor George W. Bush's use of the budget process to advance a conservative policy agenda in the state of Texas; and Mayor Marion Barry's abuses of power in Washington, D.C.

Koven demonstrates that administrative principles are at best an incomplete guide for public officials and that budgeters must learn to interpret signals from the political environment.

Environmental Pricing is an interesting book containing a broad collection of chapters that discuss issues of relevance for environmental policymaking. The topics range from support for renewable energy and fossil fuels via environmental taxation to policies for water management. The book provides relevant information regarding the many issues covered, and some chapters will stimulate further debate.' - Nils Axel Braathen, Principal Administrator OECD, Environment Directorate'As someone who has been involved in speaking, disseminating knowledge and engaging with policymakers for the last couple of decades on environmental taxation I wholeheartedly support and endorse this collection of topical and informative papers . . . a fascinating insight into the latest thinking and research in the field and a highly valued reference source.' - Chas Roy-Chowdhury, The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, UK Environmental taxes can be efficient tools for successful environmental policy. Their use, however, has been limited in many countries. This thoughtful book explores the scope of environmental pricing and examines a variety of national experiences in environmental policy integration, to identify the most effective use of taxation and policy for environmental sustainability. Environmental taxes are seldom implemented in isolation and are applied in combination with other regulatory instruments. At issue is the critical lack of knowledge on how different policy instruments and taxes interact and work together. This perceptive book considers recent research on the environmental and economic impact of applying environmental taxes. Expert contributors come together to discuss the high potential for wider use of environmental taxation in combination with other policy instruments, and highlight key areas of current practice that must be addressed. Empirical studies of policy strategies are discussed to illustrate the extent to which current climate change policy is integrated against the proposed successful policy combinations that are presented in this insightful book. Environmental pricing will be of interest to scholars, practitioners and policymakers alike in the areas of environmental law, environmental economics and environmental sustainability. Contributors: M. Antenucci, K. Bachus, K. Bubna-Litic, J. Cottrell, E. Fonseca Capdevila, Enrique, M.A. Grau Ruiz, X. Guo, D.L. Jarvie, T. Kawakatsu, C. Kettner, M. Kicia, D. Kletzan-Slamanig, A. Koeppl, L. Kreiser, A. Lerch, Y. Mao, I. Mersinia, A. Pirlot, M. Rosenstock, S. Rudolph, H. Sprohge, F. Vanswijgenhoven, M. Villar Ezcurra, R.H. Weber, J. Wu

California has a worldwide reputation as a pioneer of innovative policies for the control of air pollution by motor vehicles. Autos, Smog and Pollution Control analyses the difficulties which have been encountered in developing and implementing these policies. Professor Grant uses an analytical framework drawn from the leading theories of public policy formation, such as policy communities, to address the issues raised by California's policy making experience. This study shows how an ambitious attempt to encourage the use of electrically powered vehicles has faced technological constraints, consumer resistance and political opposition. Other policies developed in the state such as dealing with 'gross emitters', trip reduction programmes and the construction of light rail and subway systems are also critically examined. The concluding chapter relates Californian experience to the developing debate in Britain and the European Union about air pollution from motor vehicles. Autos, Smog and Pollution Control will be welcomed for its critical analysis of California's air pollution control policies as well as for the light which it sheds on contemporary theories of policy formation and the changing forces affecting environmental policymaking.

Transport is a fundamental component of all modern economies. Transport Policy presents a wide ranging collection of previously published articles which aim to provide the reader with an understanding of the main elements of transport policy. Topics covered include: the objectives of transport policy, policy options, policy analysis and, through a series of case studies, policy implementation. This volume will be of particular interest to those academics and policymakers seeking an overview of the most important issues in the modern transport policy arena.

Although what has come to be known as transaction cost economics has its origins in the 1930s, it was not until the 1970s that transaction cost economics as a systematic and identifiable field of study began. Since then, numerous theoretical developments and empirical applications have expanded and enriched the field. Recognition of its contributions to our understanding of organizations and institutions includes two Nobel laureates, Ronald Coase in 1991 and Oliver Williamson in 2009. This is an important selection of key articles on transaction cost economics by distinguished scholars including Ronald Coase, Herbert Simon, Kenneth Arrow and Richard A. Posner. This research review addresses key areas such as private ordering and credibility, contracts and organization, internal organization, vertical integration and contracting.

The field of economic demography has expanded in recent years because of the perceived relevance of economic constraints to family formation and to demographic behaviour. [The increased availability of household surveys from countries at all levels of development and the advances of methods for analysing such data have encouraged empirical extensions and the testing of household demand theories.]This authoritative collection presents in two volumes some of the influential ideas which have helped to adapt economic theory and methods to analysing the determinants and consequences of demographic behaviour and to relating such behaviour to the investments in human capital which account for much of modern economic growth. It focuses on the following topics: the estimation of wage functions - a key building block for economic demography because it explains how human capital formation affects human productivity and contributes to economic growth; health and longevity, the second most notable source of human capital accumulation; the evolution of the household production model; cooperative and bargaining approaches to the household entity; models dealing with fertility and female labour supply; models which examine the problems of fertility and investments in child quality; an exploration of how gender affects schooling, health and wage-earning potential; the effect on wages of the size and skill of the labour supply; some historical aspects of economic demography; the effects of population growth on economic development; and questions of savings, inheritance and the economic consequences of an aging population.

The 1964 Kennedy-Johnson tax cut is often cited as the single most successful application of Keynesian stabilization policy. The author challenges this orthodox historical view by exposing the haphazard planning, simplistic economic theorizing, irreconcilable numerical projections, and partisan political influences on the Council of Economic Advisers. The focus of the book is on the decisions, advice and actions of the three Chairmen of the Council during the 1960s: Walter Heller, Gardner Ackley and Arthur Okun. They were the authors of the ambitious and optimistic new economics that attempted to manipulate aggregate demand in the US economy to reach potential output. By 1965 this goal was achieved, but when Vietnam War spending and Great Society programs were added to the tax cut, the subsequent policy paralysis in the face of a surging economy clearly indicated a lack of symmetry in fiscal policy implementation. Much of the evidence for this revisionist view comes from the participants own statements in the form of White House memoranda and confidential reports as well as from counter-factual exercises that allow alternative policies or swifter responses. This book will be of great interest to macroeconomists as well as to scholars and students interested in economic history and in the formulation and implementation of economic policy.

This pathbreaking study illustrates and enhances the potential of cost-benefit analysis as a tool for decision-making. Advancing the incorporation of equity preferences in policy analysis, the authors demonstrate the application of choice modeling to the estimation of distributional weights suitable for inclusion in a cost-benefit analytical framework. A platform for discussion of the challenges and opportunities of this approach is presented in the form of a detailed case study designed to estimate community preferences for different intergenerational distributions. While the case study is focused on natural resource management and environmental policy, the conceptual and methodological advances illustrated by the authors are relevant and applicable to a wider array of policy deliberations. This book will prove a challenging and thought-provoking read for academics, students and policy makers with an interest in environmental issues and/or public sector economics. Contents: Foreword 1. Distribution and Environmental Policy 2. Distributional Weighting and Cost-Benefit Analysis 3. Choice Modelling and Distributional Preferences 4. Case Study: Design of Intergenerational Distribution Choice Experiment 5. Case Study: Results of Intergenerational Distribution Choice Experiment 6. Choice Modelling and Distributional Preferences: Challenges and Opportunities Bibliography Index

The prospect of simultaneously achieving a 'greener' environment, increased tax revenues and lower levels of unemployment has made ecological taxes an increasingly popular proposition. This volume examines the possibility of ecological tax reform in the Nordic countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The potential for ecological tax reform is investigated on a theoretical and an empirical level. The social costs associated with environmental taxes are analysed and the impacts of a Swedish carbon tax are calculated by means of a static numerical model. Taxes on carbon, nitrogen and fertilisers are also examined. The authors find that the level of unemployment cannot be decreased by revenue neutral environmental taxes without any social costs and conclude that there are no easy ways to achieve full employment, a budget surplus and environmental sustainability. They conclude that further understanding of the functioning of the labour market, household decisions and the link between change in pollutant emissions and environmental damage is needed in order to make more concrete suggestions concerning ecological tax reforms. Green Taxes will be of immense use to academics and practitioners in the field of environmental economics.

Pollution, alternative fuels, congestion, intelligent transportation systems, and the shift from construction to maintenance all call for a reconsideration of the existing highway revenue mechanisms, especially the gas tax. David Levinson explores the fundamental theoretical basis of highway finance, in particular the use of tolls, and supports that theory with empirical evidence. The author examines highway finance from the perspective of individual jurisdictions and travellers, and considers their interactions rather than specifying a single optimal solution. Congestion pricing has long been a goal of transportation economists, who believe it will result in a more efficient use of resources. Levinson argues that if the governance were to become more decentralized, and collection costs continue to drop, tolls could return to prominence as the preferred means of financing roads for both local and intercity travel. An approach that creates the local winners necessary to implement road pricing is required before it can be expected to become widespread. Economists, civil engineers, planners, students and policymakers will find this detailed examination of transportation networks enlightening and useful.

Economics has a very strong paradigm, grounded in rational choice behavior and concepts of equilibrium in markets. But it has its weaknesses. These were never more apparent than in recent years after the failure to predict, or even understand the financial crisis of 2007-8 and the subsequent crisis of the euro. Exactly what these weaknesses are is of course the subject of much debate. But the crisis and the associated failures of the dominant paradigm have had at least one salutary side effect, of providing room for other ways of thinking to come forward and to be heard. This volume focuses on alternative approaches to public economics. It surveys a number of alternative approaches, and also provides some unusual perspectives. It includes contributions by well known economists such as Giorgio Brosio and Pierre Salmon, and a chapter by Coco and Fedeli employing a Marxian economic approach to public economics. Some of the chapters are very novel, including two chapters on cognitive dissonance and one on the role of memory in modeling cycles of extreme events. There are also chapters on Austrian economics. And there is a welcome discussion of economic approaches to religion and values, including a chapter on religion by the distinguished economist Dennis Mueller, and contributions on the role of values and ethics in politics and public economics. All in all, the book provides a most welcome sourcebook of new and sometimes very different ways of thinking about public economics.' - Ronald Wintrobe, Western UniversityThis comprehensive and thought-provoking Handbook reviews public sector economics from pluralist perspectives that either complement or reach beyond mainstream views. The book takes a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach, drawing on economic elements in the fields of philosophy, sociology, psychology, history and law. The expert contributors present new methodological approaches across these disciplines in five distinct sections: - 'Revisiting the Theoretical Foundations' compares and contrasts Austrians, Marxists, public choice theorists and Keynesians - 'Revisiting the Values' is concerned with justice, welfare, religions and civil rights - 'Beyond Rationalistic Rational Choice' includes chapters devoted to memory, information and group motivation - The final sections on 'Optimal Government and Government Failure' and 'Public Economics of Public Bads' deal with competition among governments, their suboptimal size, regulation, corruption, the informal economy, cognitive dissonance, rent seeking, the UN and criminal cycles. Academics, researchers and students with an interest in economics - particularly public sector economics and Austrian economics - and public policy will find this Handbook to be an invaluable reference tool. Contributors: F. Acacia, J. Alm, G. Brady, G. Brosio, M. Caputo, M. Casson, G. Coco, M. Cubel Sanchez, S. Fedeli, M. Florio, F. Forte, N. Goldschmit, A. Habisch, M. Holler, J. Huerta de Soto, J.P. Jimenez, A. Koziashvili, M.A. Leroch, C. Magazzino, M. Mantovani, D. Montolio, R. Mudami, D.C. Mueller, S. Nitzan, D.M.A. Patti, P. Salin, P. Salmon, F. Sobbrio, V. Tanzi, Y. Tobol, B.A. Wickstroem, R. Zanola

Don’t you wish you’d started saving and investing when you were younger? Well, this is the book that aims to get kids thinking about the basics of money, and lay the solid foundation in financial education that most of us never had. Featuring playful illustrations, jokes, and fun facts designed to appeal to even the most easilybored youngster, Manage Your Money Like a Grownup: The best money advice for teens covers all the basics South African kids and teens need to know, like:

- The relationship between earning, saving and spending;
- How investing works;
- Why compound interest is a superpower;
- Why we pay taxes; and
- The ethics of money.

Informed by conversations with real kids and their parents, this book aims to equip kids with practical tips for earning and investing money at any age, and questions for kids to torture their parents with to spark lively dinner-table conversations.

This book tackles political, social, and behavioural aspects of public finance and fiscal exchange. The book combines conventional approaches toward public finance with new developments in economics such as political governance, social and individual aspects of economic behaviour. It colligates public finance and behavioural economics and gathers original contributions within the emerging field of behavioural public finance. The book addresses public finance topics by incorporating political, social, and behavioural aspects of economic decision-making, assuming the tax relationship is shaped by three dimensions of decision-making. Thus, it aims not only to reflect the interdisciplinary nature of public finance by bringing together scholars from various disciplines but also to examine public finance through the lens of political, social, and behavioural aspects. The book scrutinizes the relationship between political institutions, governance types, and public finance; it investigates the impact of social context, social capital, and societal cooperation on public finance; it explores behavioural biases of individual fiscal preferences. This book is of interest to scholars, policymakers, tax professionals, business professionals, financers, university students, and researchers in the fields of public policy and economics.