We are currently engaged in the most fundamental debate about the role of government in decades, and who better than Jonathan Gruber to guide students through the particulars in the new edition of his best-selling text, Public Finance and Public Policy, 6e.

The new edition details ongoing policy debates, with special focus on the largest tax reform in 30 years. New topics include universal basic income, the legalization of pot, and congestion pricing. And, of course, there is an extensive, in-depth discussion of the debate over health care.

At the heart of this new edition is the author’s belief that at no other time has it been so important to know the facts, to distinguish facts from falsehoods, and to be thinking clearly about problem, policy, and politics. The sixth edition delivers on all counts.

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
20     Tax Inefficiencies and Their Implications for Optimal Taxation
21     Taxes on Labor Supply
22     Taxes on Savings
23     Taxes on Risk Taking and Wealth
24     Taxation of Business Income
25     Fundamental Tax Reform and Consumption Taxation
 
Glossary G-1
References R-1
Index I-1