Walter Eltis's work has played a major role in the rediscovery of the policy relevance of classical economics. His articles on Smith, Quesnay, Ricardo and Malthus, where he derives their underlying economic argument from a detailed examination of their principal publications, led to the Bacon and Eltis theory which challenged Keynesian orthodoxy. It showed how growing public expenditure and increasing public debt reduce economic growth and destabilize modern economies. This volume includes a carefully chosen selection of his key articles and papers, as well as an extensive introductory essay which provides an account of the evolution of his ideas and their impact on economic policy.

In all highly industrialized countries public expenditures are a substantial and growing share of total economic activity. The authors integrate normative and positive theory and empirical analysis of public expenditure, concentrating on the optimal provision of public goods and the estimation of their costs and effects. This volume emphasizes the techniques that are available for reaching collective decisions about the provision of public goods and stresses the importance of income distribution and intergovernmental fiscal relations. In a mixed economy, where the public sector is growing faster than the private sector, the nature of public expenditures must be closely evaluated and studied. This book is designed to focus on and delineate controversies about public expenditure--to define what it is, analyze its function, show how it operates, and finally to evaluate research on this important subject. The book considers the theories of leading economists (Kenneth Arrow, Lionel Robbins, Carl Shoup, James Buchanan, Paul Samuelson, Richard Musgrave, and others) in arriving at a clear statement of theory in its application to operational problems. Appropriate attention is paid to current techniques such as program budgeting, cost-benefit analysis, and the analysis of the determinants of public expenditure. The book is unique in its emphasis on the integration and critique of contemporary theories of public expenditure, of distributional concerns, and of the political framework of public expenditure decisions. It provides a necessary resource for professional economists required to deal with public expenditure problems in research or practice. Jesse Burkhead is Maxwell Professor of Economics at Syracuse University. He has served on numerous professional and advisory boards. His books include Government Budgeting, State and Local Taxes for Public Education and Public School Finance: Economics and Politics. He is co-author of River Basin Administration and the Delaware, Decisions in Syracuse, and Inputs and Outputs in Large-City Education. Jerry Miner is Professor Emeritus of Economics and a CPR (Center for Policy Research) Senior Research Associate at Syracuse University. He has been a senior research economist for UNESCO in Paris, and an assistant study director of the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. His current research includes the efficiency of local schools and the distribution of state aid to local schools. He is the author of numerous journal articles.

Economic theory reached its zenith of analytical power and depth of understanding in the middle of the nineteenth century among John Stuart Mill and his contemporaries. This book explains what took place in the ensuing Marginal Revolution and Keynesian Revolution that left economists less able to understand how economies operate. It explores the false mythology that has obscured the arguments of classical economists, providing a pathway into the theory they developed.

After a detailed account of reform experiences in several countries and the public debate regarding government reform, the study closes with an outlook on the future role of the state, a period when globalization may require and people may want "leaner" but not "meaner" states."--Jacket.

The book “Public Expenditure, Economic Growth and Inflation” addresses the most relevant issue of inflation in Indian economy. It makes an interesting reading as it attempts to establish the relationship among three macro-economic indicators, i.e., public expenditure, economic growth and inflation. The book gives an overview of the increasing public expenditure and its composition throughout the years after independence. Based on the secondary data the study makes a sincere effort to establish the possible relationship between public expenditure, inflation and economic growth. The book finds out that the Wagner law of increasing state activity is applicable in India both in absolute and relative terms. Economic Growth and public expenditure are positively correlated. Economic growth and inflation are inversely related. As public expenditure is motivated by maximization of social welfare, reduction in public expenditure means to sacrifice the social welfare objective.

Originally published in 1961, this book became widely used as a textbook, as an important source of primary data on British government expenditure statistics and as the point of departure for further empirical and analytical studies of the behaviour of governments. The book was recognised as one of the formative influences in the development of a positive theory of government expenditure which sought to explain the size and structure of the system of public finance rather than justify it

In this volume, Sir Alan Peacock, one of Britain's most noted public economists, poses the question as to whether the history of economic thought is an essential part of the training of public finance economists. He argues that the perspective gained by studying the origins of public choice analysis can offer an important stimulus to scientific progress. The first lecture analyses the increasing popularity in recent years of the modernist, anti-historical point of view. The second criticises those theories of growth in government expenditure which ignore the political process. The third lecture draws on Adam Smith and David Hume to extend the conventional economic model of bureaucracy. In the final lecture, Peacock considers the problem of controlling public sector growth and points to ways of overcoming them. The book ends with short commentaries by seven public economists.