Many important economic and political debates, today, refer to the nature and the role of the State. In order to better understand them, this book is an attempt to place most of these debates, some schools of thought and central concepts in an historical perspective.
Many important economic and political debates today refer to the nature and the role of the State: should governments intervene in the economy and interfere with the operation of markets? In which occasions, and how? In order to better understand these questions and the controversies they have raised, this book re-considers the debates crucial for the issues at stake, the most important schools of thought, and the central concepts in an historical perspective. After a tribute to Sir Alan Peacock and the first publication of two hitherto unpublished papers written in the 1950s, the chapters focus on important developments that occurred in Europe during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The final part includes contributions on public economics after World War II, focusing on concepts such as merit goods, externalities and the Coase theorem.
This book was originally published as a special issue of The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought.
Part 1: Introduction
1. The Challenge of the History of Public Economics
Gilbert Faccarello and Richard Sturn
2. Public Economics and History of
Economic Thought: A Personal Memoir Alan Peacock
3. Two Unpublished Papers
from the 1950s Alan Peacock and Jack Wiseman Part 2: England
4. Jeremy
Bentham, the French Revolution, and the Political Economy of Representation
(1788 to 1789) Marco E.L. Guidi
5. Collective Interest Versus Individual
Interest in Benthams Felicific Calculus: Questioning Welfarism and Fairness
Antoinette Baujard
6. Pareto, Pigou and Third-Party Consumption: Divergent
Approaches to Welfare Theory with Implications for the Study of Public
Finance Michael McLure Part 3: France
7. Progressive Indirect Taxation and
Social Justice in Eighteenth-Century France: Forbonnais and Graslins Fiscal
System Arnaud Orain
8. History of Public Economics: The Historical French
School Serge-Christophe Kolm
9. Bold Ideas: French Liberal Economists and the
State: Say to Leroy-Beaulieu Gilbert Faccarello
10. Utility and Justice:
French Liberal Economists in the Nineteenth Century Nathalie Sigot
11. The
Foundations of Justice in Jules Dupuits Thought Philippe Poinsot
12. Gustave
Fauveaus Contribution to Fiscal Theory Claire Silvant
13. Non-Welfarism
Avant la Lettre: Alfred Fouille“es Political Economy of Justice Laurent
Dobuzinskis Part 4: Germany, Italy
14. Natural Law as Inspiration to Adolph
Wagners Theory of Public Intervention Daniele Corado and Stefano Solari
15.
The Idea of State in the Italian Tradition of Public Finance Amedeo Fossati
16. Public Expenditure in Italian Public Finance Theory Domenicantonio Fausto
17. Common Welfare versus the Spirit of Private Enterprise: The Experience of
Italian Municipalization from 1880 to 1930 Piero Bini and Daniela Parisi Part
5: Public Economics after World War II
18. The Residual Character of
Externalities Maurice Lagueux
19. The Three Roles of the Coase Theorem in
Coases Works Elodie Bertrand
20. Rawlss Justice Theory and its Relations to
the Concept of Merit Goods Ragip Ege and Herrade Igersheim
21. Get by with a
Little Help from My Friends: A Recent History of Charitable Organisations in
Economic Theory Alasdair Rutherford
22. Government and the Provision of
Public Goods: From Equilibrium Models to Mechanism Design Monique Florenzano
23. Public Economics after Neoliberalism: A TheoreticalHistorical
Perspective Yahya M. Madra and Fikret Adaman
Gilbert Faccarello is professor of economics at Panthéon-Assas University / Sorbonne Universités, Paris, France, and a co-founder and co-editor of The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought. He has published extensively on the history of political economy, especially on Ricardian, Neo-Ricardian and Marxian economics, and French economic thought (18th and 19th centuries).
Richard Sturn is Director of the Institute of Public Economics at the University of Graz, Austria, and Deputy Chair of the Graz Schumpeter Centre. He has published widely on public goods, tax and transfer systems, economic philosophy and the history of economic thought.
