Debt and Taxes

by Buchanan, James M.

• ISBN13: 9780865972407
• ISBN10: 0865972400
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-01-01
• Publisher: Liberty Fund

Summary

While this volume presents the important writings of James M. Buchanan on taxation and debt, Geoffrey Brennan makes it clear in the foreword that the thrust of Buchanan's work in this area has been to integrate theories of taxation and debt with public-expenditure theory. Therefore, the editors strongly urge that the present volume on taxation and debt be read in tandem with the subsequent Volume 15, 'Externalities and Public Expenditure Theory'. Included in this present volume are thirty-five important writings by Buchanan on taxation and debt. These are grouped into the following major subject categories: taxation, politics, and public choice; earmarking and incidence in democratic process; analytical and ethical foundations of tax limits; the fiscal constitution; confessions of a burden monger; Ricardian equivalence; the constitution of a debt-free polity. As Geoffrey Brennan points out in the foreword to this volume, "Although James Buchanan's interests are wide-ranging, the core of his professional reputation as an economist and the origin of much of his broader thinking lie in public economics -- in engagement with the questions of what governments do and how governments should properly finance what they do." This volume together with its partner subsequent volume present clear and accessible insights into the rich economic work for which Buchanan is best known.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Taxation, Politics, and Public Choice
Public Finance and Public Choice	3	(22)
Public Choice and Public Finance	25	(11)
Democratic Values in Taxation	36	(10)
Tax Reform as Political Choice	46	(8)
The Theory of Public Finance	54	(10)
Richard Musgrave, Public Finance, and Public Choice	64	(7)
Earmarking and Incidence in Democratic Process
The Economics of Earmarked Taxes	71	(18)
The Constitutional Economics of Earmarking	89	(12)
Fiscal Choice through Time: A Case for Indirect Taxation?	101	(20)
James M. Buchanan
Francesco Forte
Externality in Tax Response	121	(13)
On the Incidence of Tax Deductibility	134	(17)
James M. Buchanan
Mark V. Pauly
Analytical and Ethical Foundations of Tax Limits
Toward a Tax Constitution for Leviathan	151	(24)
Geoffrey Brennan
James M. Buchanan
The Logic of Tax Limits: Alternative Constitutional Constraints on the Power to Tax	175	(21)
Geoffrey Brennan
James Buchanan
Proportional and Progressive Income Taxation with Utility-Maximizing Governments	196	(16)
James M. Buchanan
Roger Congleton
The Ethical Limits of Taxation	212	(16)
Coercive Taxation in Constitutional Contract	228	(22)
Constitutional Constraints on Governmental Taxing Power	250	(19)
The Fiscal Constitution
The Tax System as Social Overhead Capital: A Constitutional Perspective on Fiscal Norms	269	(15)
Geoffrey Brennan
James Buchanan
Tax Reform without Tears	284	(21)
James Buchanan
Geoffrey Brennan
The Political Efficiency of General Taxation	305	(16)
Rational Majoritarian Taxation of the Rich: With Increasing Returns and Capital Accumulation	321	(22)
James M. Buchanan
Yong J. Yoon
Confessions of a Burden Monger
Debt, Public	343	(14)
Confessions of a Burden Monger	357	(4)
The Icons of Public Debt	361	(4)
Public Debt and Capital Formation	365	(20)
Ricardian Equivalence
Barro on the Ricardian Equivalence Theorem	385	(7)
The Logic of the Ricardian Equivalence Theorem	392	(16)
Geoffrey Brennan
James M. Buchanan
The Incidence and Effects of Public Debt in the Absence of Fiscal Illusion	408	(21)
James M. Buchanan
Jennifer Roback
The Constitution of a Debt-Free Polity
Organization Theory and Fiscal Economics: Society, State, and Public Debt	429	(106)
Viktor Vanberg
James M. Buchanan
The Economic Consequences of the Deficit	445	(10)
Budgetary Bias in Post-Keynesian Politics: The Erosion and Potential Replacement of Fiscal Norms	455	(18)
Dialogues Concerning Fiscal Religion	473	(13)
James M. Buchanan
Richard E. Wagner
The Moral Dimension of Debt Financing	486	(7)
The Balanced Budget Amendment: Clarifying the Arguments	493	(26)
The Ethics of Debt Default	519	(16)
Name Index	535	(4)
Subject Index	539