Handbook of Alternative Theories of Public Economics

Edited by Francesco Forte, Emeritus Professor of Public Economics, Department of Economics and Law, Sapienza – University of Rome, Italy, Ram Mudambi, Professor and Perelman Senior Research Fellow of Strategic Management, Department of Strategic Management, Fox School of Business, Temple University, US and Pietro Maria Navarra, Professor of Economics of the Public Sector and Chancellor, University of Messina, Italy and Visiting Professor of Economics and Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, US

'A Handbook of Alternative Theories of Public Economics edited by Francesco Forte with co-editors seeks to rejuvenate public economics by examining the relevance of schools of economics which compete with the current mainstream. The approaches of public choice, Austrian, Marxian, supply side economics, and new institutional schools are contrasted to the neo-Keynesians and the new political economics. The Handbook highlights features of these schools and points out their long neglected importance in understanding the political economy of the public sector. The Handbook is an insightful, unconventional and imaginative book well worth reading by public choice experts, public sector analysts and practitioners.'

• Contents:PART I: REVISITING THE THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS1. The Neglected Importance of the Austrian Thought in Public EconomicsPascal Salin2. In Defense of the Euro: An Austrian PerspectiveJesús Huerta de Soto3. Marxian Public Economics. With a Comment by Massimo FlorioGiuseppe Coco and Silvia Fedeli4. The Laffer Curve MuddleVito Tanzi5. Deficits, Tax Burden and UnemploymentSilvia Fedeli and Francesco Forte PART II: REVISITING THE VALUES6. Theories of Justice and Empirical ResultsManfred Holler and Martin Leroch7. Strategic Voting and HappinessFrancesca Acacia and Maria Cubel Sanchez8. Religious PartiesDennis C. Müller9. Western Religion, Social Ethics and Public EconomicsNils Goldschmit and Andre Habisch10. Indigenes, Immigration, and Integration: A Welfare-Economics Approach to Minority RightsBengt Arne WickstromPART III: BEYOND RATIONALISTIC RATIONAL CHOICE 11. The Role of Memory in Modeling Social and Economic Cycles of Extreme EventsMichele Caputo12. Expanding the Theory of Tax Compliance from Individual to Group MotivationsJames Alm13. The Political Economy of News Media: Theory, Evidence and Open IssuesFrancesco SobbrioPART IV: OPTIMAL GOVERNMENT AND GOVERNMENT FAILURE 14. How Significant is Yardstick Competition among Governments? Three Reasons to Dig DeeperPierre Salmon15. Optimal Size of Government and Optimal Ratio between Current and Capital ExpenditureFrancesco Forte and Cosimo Magazzino16. Government Failures in Railway Public Policy. The British CaseMark Casson17. Cognitive Dissonance, Iron Triangle and Rent seeking. Sequester and the Fiscal CliffGordon Brady18. Cognitive Dissonance, Efficient and Inefficient Rent Seeking. Public Aid to the MoviesFrancesco Forte and Michela MantovaniPART V: PUBLIC ECONOMICS OF PUBLIC BADS 19. Bargaining in International Conflicts Resolution: UN Involvement and Conflict SettlementDario Maimone Ansaldo Patti and Daniel Montolio20. The Norm of Profits Extraction from Corruption by Bureaucracy and Market SizeArkadi Koziashvili, Shmuel Nitzan and Jossef Tobol21. Alternative Views on the Origins and Impact of the Informal EconomyGiorgio Brosio, Juan Pablo Jimenez and Roberto Zanola22. Long-run and Shorter-run Criminal Cycles in the Economics of Public BadsMichele Caputo, Francesco Forte and Michela Mantovani