Lectures on Public Economics

by Anthony B. Atkinson, Joseph E. Stiglitz

Originally published in 1980 by McGraw-Hill--Title page verso.

Genres: Economics, Business, Textbooks

620 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1980

Reviews

[Matt]

Atkinson and Stiglitz provide a great representative sampling of the field of public economics and finance using the standard toolkit of economic models (competitive and Lindahl equilibria, overlapping generations, balanced growth, voting equilibrium, etc.) as well as relaxing assumptions to allow for more realistic models of the political economy including those with imperfect information, market power, multiple equilibria, the Arrow impossibility results, and alternative theories of the state. Where they shine are the exercise problems to help reinforce the material (advanced calculus required) and more importantly their interest in taking up normative questions (to paraphrase them: to develop a grammar for speaking and evaluating normative claims) as opposed to leaving normative assumptions unspoken or simply reducible to notions of Pareto optimality.