The Welfare State, Public Investment, and Growth

This book presents fifteen papers selected from the papers read at the 53rd Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance held at Kyoto, Japan, in August 1997. Although organized under the general title of Public Finance and Public Investment, the Congress covered a wide range of topics in Public Finance. One of the highlights of the Congress was a historic and brilliant debate between two of the greatest living authorities in the area of public finance, Professors James M. Buchanan and Richard A. Musgrave, on the nature of the welfare state and its future. Part I of this book is concerned with this debate and its empirical counterpart. James M. Buchanan (Chapter 1) warns that the welfare state will be unsustainable unless it preserves generality or at least quasi generality in welfare programs. The introduction of overt discrimination in welfare programs through means testing and targeting can only diminish public support. He argues that a political version of the "tragedy of commons" will emerge if and when identifiable interest groups recognize the prospects of particularized gains as promised by discriminatory tax or transfer payments. Faced with mounting pressure from entitlement-like claims of special interest groups against public revenues on one hand and equally strong pressure against further tax burdens on the other, political leaders are attracted to solutions that single out the most vulnerable targets. Distributional disagreement among classes will then become a major source of political discourse and an impetus for class conflict.

This book is based on the proceedings for the 53rd Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance held at Kyoto, Japan in 1997 and covers a wide range of topics in Public Finance * One of the high lights in this book is a historic debate between two of the greatest living authorities in the area of public finance, Professors James M. Buchanan and Richard A. Musgrave

Klappentext

The current state of research in the international public finance field is elucidated in the fifteen papers collected in this volume, selected from among the more than 200 that were presented at the 53rd Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance held in Kyoto, Japan, in August 1997. The collection assembled here is not intended to comprise a proceedings of the Congress but, rather, presents the ideas of eminent scholars in seven areas of current research in the international public finance field: The Welfare State, Public Investment and Economic Growth, Inter-Governmental Relations, Tax Competition and Foreign Direct Investment, Foreign Investment in Transitional Economies-Russia and China, and Equalization Transfer Systems in Japan and Australia. The highlight of the Congress was the brilliant debate between two of the greatest authorities in the area of public finance, James M. Buchanan and Richard A. Musgrave, whose papers form the opening section of the volume.

Inhalt
I. The Welfare State.- Chapter1 The Fiscal Crises in Welfare Democracies with Some Implications for Public Investment.- Chapter2 Comments on James M. Buchanan's Paper.- Chapter3 Social Security and Economic GrowthImplications for East Asia.- II. Public Investment and Economic Growth.- Chapter4 Corruption, Public Investment, and Growth.- Chapter5 Modeling Government Investment and Economic GrowthA Review and Some New Evidence.- Chapter6 Tax Evasion as a Disciplinary Mechanism for Fiscal Policy.- III. Inter-Governmental Relations.- Chapter7 Public Investment Issues and Efficient Climate Change Policy.- Chapter8 Decentralized Government and Macroeconomic Control.- Chapter9 Foreign Direct InvestmentRules versus Discretion.- IV. Tax Competition and Foreign Direct Investment.- Chapter10 Foreign Direct Investment and Tax Competition in Southeast Asia.- Chapter11 Investment DistinctionsThe Effect of Taxes on Foreign Direct Investment in the U.S..- V. Foreign Investment in Transitional Economies.- Chapter12 Investment Crisis in Post-Soviet Russia.- Chapter13 The Infrastructure Development and Foreign Direct Investment in China.- VI. Intergovernmental Transfer Systems.- Chapter14 An Equalization Transfer System in Japan.- Chapter15 Fiscal Federalism in Australia.