ABSTRACT

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.

part I|43 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|19 pages

Microeconomic analysis

Market efficiency and market failure

part II|76 pages

Public choice and fiscal federalism

chapter 4|19 pages

Public choice without mobility

Voting

chapter 5|17 pages

Public choice through mobility

chapter 6|17 pages

Organization of subnational government

part III|117 pages

Provision of state and local goods and services

chapter 8|27 pages

Pricing of government goods

User charges

chapter 9|28 pages

Intergovernmental grants

chapter 10|29 pages

Capital investment, borrowing, and debt

part IV|167 pages

Revenue for state and local governments

chapter 11|20 pages

Principles of tax analysis

chapter 12|41 pages

The property tax

chapter 13|29 pages

Sales and excise taxes

chapter 14|26 pages

Individual income taxes

chapter 15|22 pages

Business taxes

part V|144 pages

Applications and policy analysis

chapter 17|41 pages

Education

chapter 18|32 pages

Transportation

chapter 19|33 pages

Health and welfare

chapter 20|36 pages

Economic development