Public Finance

Richard Tresch earned a bachelor’s degree in 1965 from Williams College and a doctorate in economics in 1973 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a teaching assistant prior to joining Boston College. He joined the Boston College faculty in 1969, and during his 49-year-long career in the college, Dr. Tresch has served as the Chairman of the Department of Economics, Director of Graduate Studies, and Director of Undergraduate Studies. Currently, he is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Boston College. In 1996, he was chosen as the Massachusetts Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He was one of 585 national entrants in the foundation’s U.S. Professors of the Year Program, which salutes outstanding undergraduate instructors, with the award recognized as one of the most prestigious honors to be bestowed on professors. Dr. Tresch, a member of the American Economic Association, has served on the board of editors of the American Economic Review and contributed to the New England Journal of Business and Economics and Public Finance. Moreover, he is the editor of a fourvolume major reference work on public sector economics.

Part I: Introduction: The Content and Methodology of Public Sector TheoryIntroduction to Normative Public Sector TheoryA General Equilibrium Model for Public Sector AnalysisFirst-Best and Second-Best Analysis and the Political Economy of Public Sector EconomicsPart II: The Theory of Public Expenditures and Taxation: First-Best AnalysisThe Social Welfare Function in Policy AnalysisThe Problem of Externalities: An OverviewConsumption ExternalitiesProduction ExternalitiesThe US Anti-Pollution Policies: An Application of Externality TheoryThe Theory of Decreasing Cost ProductionThe First-Best Theory of TaxationApplying First-Best Principles of Taxation: What to Tax and HowPart III: The Theory of Public Expenditures and Taxation: Second-Best AnalysisIntroduction to Second-Best AnalysisThe Second-Best Theory of Taxation in One-Consumer Economies with Linear Production TechnologyThe Second-Best Theory of Taxation with General Production Technologies and Many ConsumersTaxation under Asymmetric InformationThe Theory and Measurement of Tax IncidenceExpenditure Incidence and Economy-Wide Incidence StudiesThe Second-Best Theory of Public Expenditures--OverviewTransfer Payments and Private InformationExternalities in a Second-Best EnvironmentDecreasing Costs and the Theory of the Second Best--the Boiteux ProblemGeneral Production Rules in a Second-Best EnvironmentPart IV: Cost-Benefit AnalysisIntroduction--the Issues of Cost-Benefit AnalysisThe Rate of Discount for Public InvestmentsUncertainty and the Arrow-Lind ProblemMeasurement Problems in Cost-Benefit AnalysisCo