Table of Contents

PART I Introduction and Background
   1  Why Study Public Finance?  
   2  Theoretical Tools of Public Finance
   3  Empirical Tools of Public Finance  
   4  Budget Analysis and Deficit Financing     
PART II Externalities and Public Goods
   5  Externalities: Problems and Solutions       
   6  Externalities in Action: Environmental and Health Externalities   
   7  Public Goods 
   8  Cost-Benefit Analysis          
   9  Political Economy    
   10 State and Local Government Expenditures 
   11 Education    
PART III Social Insurance and Redistribution
   12 Social Insurance: The New Function of Government          
   13 Social Security          
   14 Unemployment Insurance, Disability Insurance, and Workers’ Compensation            
   15 Health Insurance I: Health Economics and Private Health Insurance            
   16 Health Insurance II: Medicare, Medicaid, and Health Care Reform            
   17 Income Distribution and Welfare Programs
PART IV Taxation in Theory and Practice
   18 Taxation: How It Works and What It Means
   19 The Equity Implications of Taxation: Tax Incidence           

About the Author

Dr. Jonathan Gruber is the Ford Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology