Public Choice Analysis in Historical Perspective [Paperback]

Investigates the relevance of the history of economic thought to public finance economics.Is the history of economic thought an essential part of the training of public finance economists? Sir Alan Peacock argues that the perspective gained by studying the origins of public choice analysis can offer an important stimulus to scientific progress.Is the history of economic thought an essential part of the training of public finance economists? Sir Alan Peacock argues that the perspective gained by studying the origins of public choice analysis can offer an important stimulus to scientific progress.Alan Peacock poses the question of whether the history of economic thought is an essential part of the training of scholars concerned with the study of public finance. He contends that the perspective gained by studying the origins of public choice analysis can offer an important stimulus to scientific progress. His first lecture, The demand for historical perspective, traces the decrease in demand for historical perspective. His second lecture, Public choice and the analysis of public sector growth, criticizes those theories of growth in government expenditure that ignore the political process. In his third lecture, The economic consequences of public sector growth, he extends the conventional contemporary model of bureaucracy. A final lecture, The calculus of consent and limits on government expenditure growth, considers the work of Knut Wicksell and Amilcare Puviani when seeking to explain ways of limiting public sector growth.Preface; 1. The demand for historical perspective; 2. Public choice and the analysis of public sector growth; 3. The economic consequences of public sector growth; 4. The calculus of consent and limits on government expenditure growth; Commentaries. ...will be enjoyed by anyone, scholar or student, who delights in academic dialogue....Read Sir Alan Peacock's Mattioli Lectures when you can, whether you have an abiding or a casual interest in publiclãq