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The Rise and Fall of the Public Sector in the Estimation of the Economists

In: Economic Theory, Welfare and the State

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  • Dan Usher

Abstract

Over the last two centuries, there has been a great cycle of opinion among economists about the sources of inefficiency: from Adam Smith’s sharp and unqualified contrast between private sector enterprise and public sector sloth; to Mill’s qualified and reluctant allowance of large domains within the economy where the public sector must act because the private sector would not or could not do so; to Sidgwick’s concern in the latter part of the nineteenth century with what we would now call market failure and his willingness to trust the public sector to put things right; to Pigou’s detailed analysis in the early years of the twentieth century of the defects of the competitive economy coupled with an almost complete disregard of the possibility of public sector inefficiency; to a recent revival of interest in public sector economics and a reassessment of public sector efficiency reminiscent of the views of Adam Smith.

Suggested Citation

  • Dan Usher, 1990. "The Rise and Fall of the Public Sector in the Estimation of the Economists," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Athanasios Asimakopulos & Robert D. Cairns & Christopher Green (ed.), Economic Theory, Welfare and the State, chapter 3, pages 28-62, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-10911-1_3
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-10911-1_3
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