IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ntj/journl/v51y1998i2p391-96.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public Finance and Public Choice

Author

Listed:
  • Poterba, James M.

Abstract

This paper explores the contribution that public choice models can make to the traditional efficiency and distributional analyses of tax policy. It notes the relative lack of attention to political economy issues in public finance, at least in comparison with other policy-oriented subfields in economics. It then discusses two key insights that emerge from public choice models of taxation. The first is the notion that different tax systems may be associated with different opportunities for political rent seeking, and the second is the possibility that actual tax systems equate the marginal political cost of raising revenue from different tax instruments, rather than the marginal efficiency cost. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the role of traditional efficiency and distributional analyses in contributing to tax policymaking, even in a political world.

Suggested Citation

  • Poterba, James M., 1998. "Public Finance and Public Choice," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 51(2), pages 391-396, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ntj:journl:v:51:y:1998:i:2:p:391-96
    DOI: 10.1086/NTJ41789334
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1086/NTJ41789334
    Download Restriction: Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1086/NTJ41789334
    Download Restriction: Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/NTJ41789334?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Buchanan, James M., 1993. "The Political Efficiency of General Taxation," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 46(4), pages 401-10, December.
    2. Geoffrey Brennan, 1984. "Elements of a Fiscal Politics: Public Choice and Public Finance," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 17(3), pages 62-72, November.
    3. Winer, Stanley L. & Hettich, Walter, 1998. "What Is Missed If We Leave Out Collective Choice in the Analysis of Taxation," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 51(n. 2), pages 373-89, June.
    4. Buchanan, James M., 1993. "The Political Efficiency of General Taxation," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 46(4), pages 401-410, December.
    5. Winer, Stanley L. & Hettich, Walter, 1998. "What Is Missed if We Leave Out Collective Choice in the Analysis of Taxation," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 51(2), pages 373-389, June.
    6. Hettich, W. & Winer, S.L., 1993. "The Political Economy of Taxation," Papers 8, Carleton - Business Administration.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hsun Chu & Chu-Chuan Cheng & Yu-Bong Lai, 2015. "A political economy of tax havens," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(6), pages 956-976, December.
    2. Alfano, Vincenzo & De Simone, Elina & D’Uva, Marcella & Gaeta, Giuseppe Lucio, 2022. "Exploring motivations behind the introduction of tourist accommodation taxes: The case of the Marche region in Italy," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    3. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:8:y:2006:i:12:p:1-8 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Ringa Raudla, 2010. "Governing budgetary commons: what can we learn from Elinor Ostrom?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 201-221, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Poterba, James M., 1998. "Public Finance and Public Choice," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 51(n. 2), pages 391-96, June.
    2. Stanley L. Winer & Walter Hettich, 2002. "The Political Economy of Taxation: Positive and Normative Analysis when Collective Choice Matters," Carleton Economic Papers 02-11, Carleton University, Department of Economics, revised 2004.
    3. Niclas Berggren, 1999. "A Preference-Utilitarian Foundation for the Generality Principle," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 339-353, November.
    4. Mehmet Serkan Tosun & Sohrab Abizadeh, 2005. "Economic growth and tax components: an analysis of tax changes in OECD," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(19), pages 2251-2263.
    5. William F. Shughart II & Josh T. Smith, 2020. "The broken bridge of public finance: majority rule, earmarked taxes and social engineering," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 183(3), pages 315-338, June.
    6. repec:dgr:rugsom:99e05 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Spicer, Michael W., 1995. "On Friedrich Hayek and Taxation: Rationality, Rules, and Majority Rule," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 48(1), pages 103-112, March.
    8. Volkerink, Bjørn & Haan, Jakob de, 1999. "Political and institutional determinants of the tax mix : an empirical investigation for OECD countries," Research Report 99E05, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    9. Bartha, Zoltán, 2014. "Mid-term Effects of the Flat Rate Personal Income Tax in Hungary," MPRA Paper 61890, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Holcombe, Randall G., 1998. "Tax Policy From a Public Choice Perspective," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 51(2), pages 359-371, June.
    11. Bev Dahlby & Neil Warren, 2003. "Fiscal Incentive Effects of the Australian Equalisation System," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 79(247), pages 434-445, December.
    12. Daniele Bertolini, 2019. "Constitutionalizing Leviathan: A Critique of Buchanan’s Conception of Lawmaking," Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 41-69, October.
    13. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:8:y:2006:i:12:p:1-8 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Joshua Hall, 2006. "Fiscal competition and tax instrument choice: the role of income inequality," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 8(12), pages 1-8.
    15. Stanley L. Winer, 2016. "The Political Economy of Taxation: Power, Structure, Redistribution," Carleton Economic Papers 16-15, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    16. Pantelis Kammas, 2011. "Strategic fiscal interaction among OECD countries," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 147(3), pages 459-480, June.
    17. Konstantinos Angelopoulos & James Malley & Apostolis Philippopoulos, 2012. "Optimal taxation and the skill premium," Working Papers 2012_01, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    18. Andreas Haufler & Alexander Klemm & Guttorm Schjelderup, 2009. "Economic integration and the relationship between profit and wage taxes," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 423-446, March.
    19. Bernasconi, Michele, 2006. "Redistributive taxation in democracies: Evidence on people's satisfaction," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 809-837, December.
    20. Alberto Sole Olle, 1998. "The effects of tax deductibility on the mix of property taxes and use charges: an empirical analysis of the spanish case," Working Papers in Economics 41, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    21. Donatella Baiardi & Paola Profeta & Riccardo Puglisi & Simona Scabrosetti, 2019. "Tax policy and economic growth: does it really matter?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(2), pages 282-316, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ntj:journl:v:51:y:1998:i:2:p:391-96. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: The University of Chicago Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ntanet.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.