Public Finance and Public Policy

"This latest edition includes many of the exciting new topics of public policy debates. Within each area, you will learn about the key policy issues in three ways to ensure the richest possible understanding. The first is through the language of economic theory, using intuitive description, graphs, and mathematics to help you understand how economic tools are used to address critical questions. The second is through examples and applications, using vivid real-world descriptions to show you how these policy issues play out in reality and to clarify the lessons we can learn from that experience. These real-world examples, pulled from past and present, appear at the start of s, are fully integrated into them, and also appear in Application boxes, which have been written to reinforce learning and clarify the relevance of policy issues to our lives. Third and finally is an emphasis on understanding how public finance economists gather and interpret data. Empirical Evidence boxes have been included to help you connect theory and data to the formulation and outcomes of actual policy. These boxes explain the research process that generates major empirical findings. In my mind, this emphasis on data is key. At no other time has it been so important to know the facts, to distinguish facts from falsehoods, and to think critically about problems and politics. Doing so requires access to scientifically valid evidence on the public policy questions of the day. In the Empirical Evidence boxes and throughout this book you will learn how experts in the field gather such evidence, and how it gets used to make key decisions.";adapted from From the Author, page xvii.