Concept
Public economics
Overview
Public economics (or economics of the public sector) is the study of government policy through the lens of economic efficiency and equity. Public economics builds on the theory of welfare economics and is ultimately used as a tool to improve social welfare. Welfare can be defined in terms of well-being, prosperity, and overall state of being.
Public economics provides a framework for thinking about whether or not the government should participate in economic markets and if so to what extent it should do so. Microeconomic theory is utilized to assess whether the private market is likely to provide efficient outcomes in the absence of governmental interference; this study involves the analysis of government taxation and expenditures.
This subject encompasses a host of topics notably market failures such as, public goods, externalities and Imperfect Competition, and the creation and implementation of government policy.
Broad methods and topics include:
the theory and application of public finance
Analysis and design of public policy
distributional effects of taxation and government expenditures
analysis of market failure and government failure.
Emphasis is on analytical and scientific methods and normative-ethical analysis, as distinguished from ideology. Examples of topics covered are tax incidence, optimal taxation, and the theory of public goods.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
The omission is no defect in them as abstract or hypothetical sciences, but it vitiates them in their practical application as branches of a comprehensive social science. In political economy, for instance, empirical laws of human nature are tacitly assumed by English thinkers, which are calculated only for Great Britain and the United States. Among other things, an intensity of competition is constantly supposed…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
States what Public economics is.
Productive expenditure they are accustomed to view as a gain; unproductive expenditure, however useful, as a sacrifice. Unproductive expenditure of what was destined to be expended productively, they always characterise as a squandering of resources, and call it profusion and prodigality. The productive expenditure of that which might, without encroaching upon capital, be expended unproductively, is called saving…
John Stuart Mill, Essays on some unsettled Questions of Political Economy
States what Public economics is.
The meaning of the term was then extended to the government of that great family, the State. To distinguish these two senses of the word, the latter is called _general_ or _political_ economy, and the former domestic or particular economy. The first only is discussed in the present discourse.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The social contract & discourses
States what Public economics is.
Related ideas
- Equity (economics)
- Public policy
- Tax
- Right to property
- Public sector
- Operations research
- Welfare economics
- Public administration
- Democracy
- JEL classification system
- Distribution (economics)
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Philosophy and economics.