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Retrospectives on Public Finance contains original analyses by internationally recognized public finance scholars, including Carl Sumner Shoup, one of the discipline’s most famous practitioners. Shoup, along with Richard Musgrave and his students, pioneered the “prescriptive” or “political economy school” of public finance known for its hands-on approach and its commitment to applying theory to real world problems.
Each contributor provides a retrospective on Shoup’s various contributions to the field, reviewing the literature and assessing its relevance to current problems in public finance theory and policy. The essays highlight and analyze fiscal theory and public policy developments from the 1930s to the present in four areas: the Shoup tax missions to Japan, Venezuela, and Liberia; the tax mix; the expenditure mix; and macro public finance.Contributors. Lorraine Eden, Carl S. Shoup, Malcolm Gillis, Minoru Nakazato, Charles E. McLure Jr., John Bossons, Richard Goode, William Vickery, Wayne Thirsk, John Graham, Stanley Winer, W. Irwin Gillespie, Melville L. McMillan, Cliff Walsh, John G. Head, Enid Slack, Edwin G. West, Richard M. Bird, Peggy B. Musgrave, Douglas A. L. Auld, John B. Burbidge, Jack M. Mintz, John Sargent, Richard A. Musgrave
List of contents
Preface ix
I. Introduction
1. Retrospectives on Public Finance / Lorraine Eden 3
II. The Shoup Tax Missions
2. Melding Architecture and Engineering: A Personal Retrospective on Designing Tax Systems / Carl S. Shoup 19
3. Legacies from the Shoup Tax Missions: Asia, Africa, and Latin America / Malcolm Gillis 31
4. The Impact of the Shoup Report on Japanese Economic Development / Minoru Nakazato 51
5. Income Tax Reform in Venezuela: Thirty Years after the Shoup Mission / Charles E. McClure Jr. 67
Comment: Evaluating the Tax Missions / John Bossons 86
III. The Tax Mix
6. Changing Views of the Personal Income Tax / Richard Goode 93
7. The Corporate Income Tax and How to Get Rid of It / William Vickery 118
8. Intellectual Foundations of the VAT in North America and Japan / Wayne Thirsk 133
9. The Place of the Property Tax in the Fiscal System / John F. Graham 149
Comment: Choosing an Appropriate Time Horizon for Taxation / Stanley Winer 168
Comment: Taxing Consumption and Wealth / W. Irwin Gillespie 172
IV. The Expenditure Mixture
10. Local Public Goods: Shoup Revisited / Lorraine Eden and Melville L. McMillan 177
11. Public Goods Provision and Price Exclusion: Market Behavior and Market Performance 203
12. Merit Wants: Analysis and Taxonomy / John G. Head 229
Comment: Retrospectives on Local Public Goods / Enid Slack 253
Comment: Merit Wants and Public Goods Theory / Edwin G. West 255
V. Macro Public Finanace
13. Tax Structure and the Growth of Government / Richard M. Bird 263
14. Fiscal Coordination and Competition in an International Setting / Peggy B. Musgrave 276
15. Compensatory Fiscal Policy: Evolution or Revolution? / Douglas A. L. Auld 306
16. Social Security and Public Debt in Historical Perspective / John B. Burbidge 323
Comment: The Role of Economic Policy in the Tax Reform Process / Jack M. Mintz 338
Comment: On Macro Public Finance / John Sargent 344
VI. Conclustion
17. Tableau Fiscale / Richard A. Musgrave 351
References 363
Contributors 393
Author Index 397
Subject Index 402
About the author
Lorraine Eden, ed.
