Shadow-Pricing Interpretation of the Pigovian Rule for the Optimal Provision of Public Goods: A Note

The Pigovian rule for the optimal public goods provision with distortionary taxation is given a new interpretation. It relates the Pigovian rule to project evaluation rules in terms of shadow prices. Our formula for the Pigovian rule is compared with that given by existing literature for cases in which commodity taxes are set optimally to articulate the implications of their results. This approach also renders a clear insight on the nature of resource allocation and income redistribution effect involved in the public goods provision in a heterogeneous-consumers economy.     

A Second-Best Theory of Local Government Policy

This paper provides a model where a large number of small jurisdictions compete for mobile firms and households by supplying local public goods and factors. Jurisdictions only have an incomplete set of tax instruments at their disposal to achieve an efficient allocation. We derive second-best behavioral rules for local governments and extend optimal taxation results to the local level. Local governments distort locational decisions of mobile firms and households by taxing them above marginal congestion costs so as to balance relative locational distortions between taxes. The analysis also reveals that there is a systematic difference between the provision of local public goods and factors. While local public goods are provided according to the Samuelson rule in most situations considered, local public factors are undersupplied relative to this rule.     

Uncertainty in the Theory of Public Finance

This paper discusses the role that the economics of uncertainty has played in the theory of public finance. From being mostly concerned with its choice-theoretic foundations in the 1950s and 1960s, the theory of expected utility maximisation and risk averse behaviour has contributed decisively to the development of several areas of the theory of public finance. Three of these have been chosen here to illustrate the general point: The theory of taxation and risk taking with focus on portfolio choice, the role of uncertainty in public expenditure analysis (emphasising the effect of public goods provision on private risk taking) and the theory of tax evasion and compliance.     

Pawns and queens revisited: public provision of private goods when individuals make mistakes

This paper analyses the optimal tax policy and public provision of private goods when the government is paternalistic and has a redistributive objective. When individuals only differ with respect to their income-earning abilities, the publicly-provided goods should be overprovided, relative to the decentralised optimum, if society’s marginal valuation of them exceeds the individual valuation and if these goods are complements to labour supply. However, when the individuals also differ in terms of their valuation of the publicly-provided good, this simple conclusion does not hold. Optimal marginal income tax rates are shown to differ from the standard rules if publicly-provided goods and labour supply are related.      

Optimal taxation and public provision for poverty reduction

The existing literature on optimal taxation typically assumes there exists a capacity to implement complex tax schemes, which is not necessarily the case for many developing countries. We examine the determinants of optimal redistributive policies in the context of a developing country that can only implement linear tax policies due to administrative reasons. Further, the reduction of poverty is typically the expressed goal of such countries, and this feature is also taken into account in our model. We derive the optimality conditions for linear income taxation, commodity taxation, and public provision of private and public goods for the poverty minimization case and compare the results to those derived under a general welfarist objective function. We also study the implications of informality on optimal redistributive policies for such countries. The exercise reveals non-trivial differences in optimal tax rules under the different assumptions.     

Self‐Insurance and Self‐Protection as Public Goods

Many public goods provide utility by insuring against hazardous events. Those public goods can have self‐insurance and self‐protection character. For both situations we analyze the efficient public provision level and the provision level resulting from Nash behavior in a private provision game. We consider the interaction of public goods as insurance devices with market insurance. The availability of market insurance reduces the provision level of the public good for both public and private provision, regardless of whether we consider self‐insurance or self‐protection. Moreover, we show that Nash behavior has always a larger impact than the availability of market insurance.     

信号消费、异质消费与公共产品自愿供给

传统的经典理论分析了政府供给公共产品和消费者无差别消费时的经济问题。然而在市场经济中消费者的类型是不相同的,对公共产品的消费需求也各不相同。对此,需要研究不同消费需求、不同供给模式下具有"消费信号"的公共产品自愿供给问题。研究发现,提高公共产品消费的信号性,优化公共产品的供给模式对于公共产品的自愿供给非常重要。同时,识别出"信号消费"下的异质消费者,并使公共产品具有私人产品的消费特征时,公共产品自愿供给的意愿将会增加。     

The marginal cost of public funds is one at the optimal tax system

This paper develops a Mirrlees framework with skill and preference heterogeneity to analyze optimal linear and nonlinear redistributive taxes, optimal provision of public goods, and the marginal cost of public funds (MCF). It is shown that the MCF equals one at the optimal tax system, for both lump-sum and distortionary taxes, for linear and nonlinear taxes, and for both income and consumption taxes. By allowing for redistributional concerns, the marginal excess burden of distortionary taxes is shown to be equal to the marginal distributional gain at the optimal tax system. Consequently, the modified Samuelson rule should not be corrected for the marginal cost of public funds. Outside the optimum, the marginal cost of public funds for distortionary taxes can be either smaller or larger than one. The findings of this paper have potentially important implications for applied tax policy and social cost–benefit analysis.     

Financial Reporting BY Local Government And The Disproportionate Requirements Of AAS 27

This paper discusses the economic characteristics, and related financial reporting issues, of goods and services provided by local government. These goods are grouped into three categories: public, private, and mixed public/private goods and services. Modified cash-based reports are found to be proper for government units that provide public and mixed goods, and accrual-based accounting is appropriate for units that provide private goods. When the provision of mixed goods and services by local government is not mandatory, the disclosure of the market value of the assets employed in producing these goods or services is also warranted.     

Öffentliche Güter mit Versicherungscharakter

Dikes as well as early warning systems against natural disasters are just two examples for pure public goods that serve as an insurance device. Dikes reduce the probability of a loss caused by flooding. Such public goods can be seen as public self-protection. By contrast, early warning systems do not reduce the probability of a loss, but the size of a loss. Hence, such public goods can be seen as public self-insurance. The present paper presents a model which takes these characteristics into account. Conditions for the efficient provision of such public goods are derived. Moreover, we analyze the consequences of a change in income and risk aversion towards the efficient provision level as well as the interaction with private market insurance.     

地方税收竞争中公共品供给的动态博弈及应对思路

地方税收竞争在中国具有普遍性,但与市场经济发达国家的税收竞争又存在着内容上的差异.从博弈分析来看,博弈参与主体在完全信息条件下,其最优结果是进行地方税收竞争且投入于公共品.但从中国的现实情况来看,公共品供给不足是源于制度上提供的潜在利益驱动地方政府偏离其应有责任.因此,减少政府层次、合理配给地方政府相对独立的税权、制定良好的公共支出政策是促使经济进入良性循环、地方税收竞争走向规范、有序的重要制度安排.     

振兴东北老工业基地的财税政策取向

公共产品理论为中央财政介入振兴东北老工业基地战略提供了理论依据.在坚持市场导向和比较优势的原则下,我们需要找准财税政策的切入点.对于财政支出政策和税收政策,我们应明确其各自的作用范围和作用力度,适时适度地加以选择.     

公共产品视角下的我国税权治理机制研究

当前,我国税权治理机制存在事权、财权和税权不统一,税权高度集中,地方税收立法权缺位等问题,不利于地方税系的健全和地方经济社会的发展。本文主要是通过公共产品的视角来阐述税权治理的理论依据,并借鉴西方国家税权治理的有益经验,进一步完善我国的税权治理机制。     

我国开征不动产税与增强地方政府公共服务能力的思考

在物质生活基本得到满足的情况下．老百姓对医疗、教育、社会保障、公共安全以及环境保护等公共产品和公共服务的需求越来越突出，对地方政府的目标要求也不再是发展经济这一单一目标，而是更加强调其公共服务的能力。地方政府的公共服务能力在很大程度上取决于其收入能力。本文将探讨不动产税改革将如何在增强地方政府公共服务能力中发挥作用，并针对开征不动产税过程可能遇到的难点问题，提出相关对策建议。     

公共品生产的市场化与制度创新

在市场经济条件下 ,资源配置以市场机制为基础 ,政府的基本职责是提供公共品 ,弥补市场配置的缺陷。然而 ,政府提供并不等于政府生产 ,更不等于政府直接的垄断生产。中国公共品生产制度安排的主要缺陷是政府及其公共部门的过度垄断 ,私人资本和国外资本进入公共品生产领域存在种种制度壁垒和不公平竞争条件。中国加入WTO后 ,必须逐步向国外厂商开放政府采购市场 ,同时 ,公共品生产市场的对内开放也实属必然。在国家宏观调控下 ,有序地向国内外开放公共品市场 ,实现政府机制与市场机制混合调节以及公共部门与私人部门、国内资本与国外资本的职能互补和公平竞争 ,必须进行包括政府规制制度、财政税收制度、公共投资和补贴制度、产权制度以及企业组织制度等在内的全面制度创新。     

Alternative funding: Looking beyond the nation-state

The challenge for the UN and for all publicly funded institutions that distribute surpluses for international needs is nothing less than to devise new global mechanisms for the collection and distribution of the surplus generated in a global economy. A minimalist interpretation of when individual governments can and cannot provide public goods has exercised strong influences on perceptions as to what is appropriate at international levels and with regard to the financing of international institutions. There is a strong consensus on an important range of international social goods. Three kinds of financing alternatives should be accorded priority in policy research—charges for the use of the global commons, monetary measures, and international taxation.     

A Trusteeship Theory of Accounting for Natural Capital Assets

One of the problems encountered in implementing accrual accounting in the government sector is that of accounting for natural capital assets provided freely to government and which are used as public goods. Professional accounting standards require that these assets be valued and included in the government's statement of assets and liabilities. The problem is not encountered in business accrual accounting because business neither acquires assets freely nor provides services to the public on a non-commercial basis.
Various issues surrounding accrual accounting for natural capital assets used as public goods are examined in this article. The nature and characteristics of such assets, and the distinctions between private goods and public goods markets, are first explained to set the context for examination of the issues. Then the issues as to whether natural capital assets should be treated as assets for accounting purposes and included in the government's statement of financial position are analysed according to FASB standards; it is concluded that they are not assets. Rather, it is proposed that these assets used for the provision of non-commercial services to the public should be treated in a separate category as public goods assets which are held in trust by the government on behalf of the nation, for the benefit of current and future generations and for the preservation of the natural ecology of the nation. Commercial valuations are not relevant for these assets and they need not be valued in financial terms for their good management.     

Global and Regional Public Goods: A Prognosis for Collective Action

This paper applies modern concepts from the theory of public goods to indicate why progress has been made with respect to some global and regional public goods (for example, cutting sulphur emissions) but not with respect to others (for example, cutting greenhouse gases). Factors promoting collective action at the transnational level include the removal of uncertainty, a high share of nation-specific benefits, a limited number of essential participants and the presence of an influential leader nation. The impact of public good aggregation technologies on the future provision of transnational public goods is related to the trend in world-wide income inequality. Principles are presented for designing supranational structures for addressing transnational public good problems. JEL classification: H41, D70, Q20.     

农村公共产品供给与农民收入问题研究

阻碍农民增收和农村经济发展的根本原因在于改革开放以来农村公共产品供给不足,表现为农村公共产品供给与需求失衡;同时,政府将有限的财力和公共产品的大部分投向城市,形成了公共产品供给的城市化倾向,这又表现为城乡公共产品供给失衡.农村公共产品的长期短缺严重地影响了农村私人产品的产出效率.因此,作者提出了必须关注农村农民对公共产品的需求;建立起完善的农村公共产品体系等重要观点.     

Tax coordination with different preferences for public goods: Conflict or harmony of interest?

The paper analyzes strategic commodity taxation in a model with trade in a single private good that is simultaneously imported by consumers of a high-tax country and exported by its producers. Conditions for the existence of a Nash equilibrium are given, and an asymmetry is introduced through different preferences for public goods. Two tax coordination measures are discussed—a minimum tax rate and a coordinated increase in the costs of cross-border shopping. It is shown that tax coordination generally benefits the high-tax country while the low-tax country will gain only if the intensity of tax competition is high in the initial equilibrium or if governments are pricesensitive toward the effective marginal costs of public good supply.