公共经济学教程（英文影印版）
基本信息
编辑推荐
“数学家把简单、深入并且决定性的证明称为 优雅的 ；从这个意义上来说，这是一本优雅的教科书。其主题是存在市场失效的情况下政府政策的经济理论。该书使用了应用微观经济学理论的方法，使用简单的模型和基于模型的推理，在各种分析（使用代数、几何和基本的微积分知识）与直觉之间反复转换，来发展和运用基本理论。这本书的逻辑脉络清晰、准确，它不仅带给学生一流的经济推理，而且教学生像经济学家一样思考。” ——波士顿大学，理查德·阿诺特 “作为一本优秀的核心教科书，该书采用了学生容易理解和掌握的方法来讲解现代公共经济学，其间配有典型的案例和有益的常识，并且强调对日常的公共政策问题的公共经济分析。它不仅涵盖了标准的财政学领域，而且还涉及了相关领域，例如劳动经济学、工业组织、宏观经济学、财务和不完全信息经济学。” ——加拿大皇后大学，罗宾·博德威
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本书的第一部分讨论了福利经济学的两条基本定理。这两条基本定理表明，竞争性的市场可以导致令社会满意的结果，并描述了所需要的条件。本书的第二部分，讨论了当这些条件不满足时会出现的市场失效的种类——外部效应、公共产品、不完全竞争以及信息不对称，考察了在解决市场失效中的政府职能；并对政府行为的局限性，尤其是产生于信息不对称的局限性，也进行了研究。
使用本书作为教材的教师可以得到更多的教辅资料，包括对课后练习题的解答。
使用本书作为教材的教师可以得到更多的教辅资料，包括对课后练习题的解答。
作译者回到顶部↑
本书提供作译者介绍
约翰·利奇是加拿大安大略省汉密尔顿的麦克马斯特大学的经济学教授。他的文章曾在许多著名的杂志上发表，例如《政治经济学杂志》、《经济理论杂志》、《公共经济学杂志》、《国际经济评论》、《加拿大经济学杂志》、《劳动经济学杂志》、《加拿大公共政策》、《经济动态与控制杂志》等。
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目录回到顶部↑
图表目录
前言
1 导论
1．1 两条基本定理
1．2 市场失效
1．3 信息与第二条定理
1．4 两条基本定理的有效性
1．5 政府的职能
市场
2 交换经济
2．1 埃奇沃斯盒形图
2．2 帕累托最优
2．3 竞争性均衡
2．4 市场
2．5 福利经济学的两条基本定理
2．6 总结
习题
3 代数的交换经济
3．1 效用函数
3．2 边际替代率
前言
1 导论
1．1 两条基本定理
1．2 市场失效
1．3 信息与第二条定理
1．4 两条基本定理的有效性
1．5 政府的职能
市场
2 交换经济
2．1 埃奇沃斯盒形图
2．2 帕累托最优
2．3 竞争性均衡
2．4 市场
2．5 福利经济学的两条基本定理
2．6 总结
习题
3 代数的交换经济
3．1 效用函数
3．2 边际替代率
前言回到顶部↑
You will put it in the proper Whitehall prose, scabrous, fiat-footed, with much use of the passive, will you not? I may have allowed something approaching enthusiasm to creep in.
Dr. Maturin, in Patrick O'Brian's The Yellow Admiral
Do markets work, and if they don't, what should be done about it? This question has been at the center of microeconomics since Adam Smith proposed, in The Wealth of Nations (1776), that each individual's self-interested participation in the market system often promotes the greater good of society. Providing a comprehensive answer to this question has been no easy task. The way in which markets work was not fully articulated until Walras outlined the first general equilibrium model in the early 1870s, and the sense in which market outcomes advance society's interests was not defined until Pareto published his major work in 1909. The principles set out by Walras and Pareto formed the basis of a research program that continued into the second half of the twentieth century, culminating in the Arrow-Debreu model of general equilibrium. This model precisely describes the conditions under which free markets yield a socially desirable outcome. These conditions are very restrictive, leading Stiglitz ([63], p. 29) to comment that "in a sense Debreu and Arrow's great achievement was to find the almost singular set of assumptions under which Adam Smith's invisible hand conjecture is correct:
Adam Smith would not have been surprised by this finding. He is often portrayed as an unrelenting advocate of free markets and an opponent of government intervention, but this portrayal is inaccurate. Certainly, he was opposed to some types of government intervention: The Wealth of Nations is in large part a criticism of the mercantile system, under which the government conspired with merchants to develop powerful trading mo- nopolies. But he did not believe that the government should never intervene in economic
matters. Indeed, he argued that the government has three essential duties, including
the duty of erecting and maintaining certain public works and certain public institutions, which it can never be for the interest of any individual, or small number of individuals, to erect and maintain; because the profit could neither repay the expense of any individual or small number of individuals, though it may frequently do much more than repay it to a great society?
John Stuart Mill, writing almost a century later, displayed an equal ambivalence toward free markets. He argued that "laissez faire.., should be the general practice; every departure from it, unless required by some greater good, is a certain evil" but had little difficulty in identifying justifiable interventions, including the regulation of education?
More than a century after Mill, the attitude of mainstream economists is little changed. They oppose monopoly power. They recognize Smith's "public works" as public goods, or as goods with strong positive externalities, and would agree with his call for government action. They might even find in Mill's rationale for the regulation of education - that the consumer is not able to judge the nature of the commodity - an intimation of modern informational economics. They endorse the market system while remaining aware of its shortcomings.
The issue of whether markets work, and what should be done if they don't, forms the core of public economics. While this book is intended to be a textbook in public economics, it examines only this core issue. It excludes a number of topics normally found in public economics textbooks, such as tax incidence and cost-benefit analysis.
This book is also intended to act as a bridge between two modes of economic analysis. Undergraduate students tend to rely upon graphs and simple verbal arguments. By contrast, graduate students rely heavily on extended logical and mathematical analysis. This kind of analysis is also routinely employed by academic economists, and to a lesser degree, by private and public sector economists. The first kind of analysis is employed at the beginning of the book, but there is an increasing reliance on mathematics thereafter.
Let me emphasize, however, that this is not a book in which sophisticated mathe- matical tools are either taught or applied. I have assumed that you can do the sort of things that anyone who has survived a university course in calculus should be able to do. Specifically, I have assumed that you can
? calculate the derivatives of functions of one or more variables, and understand the meaning of these derivatives;
? manipulate an equation to isolate a single variable;
? solve a system of simple equations by recursive substitution.
I believe that you can learn a great deal about economics by formulating issues as mathematical problems and applying the skills that you already have to solve them.
Knowing how to drive a car is quite different from actually driving it: there is no substitute for time behind the wheel. The same thing is true of problem solving. You might know how to calculate a derivative, but that's not the same as knowing when to calculate one and what to do with it when you've got it. I hope that this book will provide you with "time behind the wheel." The chapters are really extended examples of the way in which mathematics can be applied to economic issues. As well, there are questions at the end of the chapters, so you will be able to try your hand at problems that are similar to the ones described in the chapters themselves.
You might be less bothered by the mathematics than by the sheer length of the arguments presented here. In most undergraduate texts, a one-page explanation is a long explanation. Here, mathematical models of the economy are developed over several pages and their solutions are described over several more pages. Reading this kind of material requires a great deal of concentration.
A lack of concentration was my problem when, in the first year of graduate school, I began to read articles in academic journals. I eventually adopted the following strategy, and use it still:
1) When I read an article for the first time, I read it relatively quickly. I try to understand the issue that is being addressed and the way in which the author intends to address it. If I come across verbal arguments or bits of mathematics that I don't readily understand, I skip them.
2) I read the article again, more slowly. I check to make sure that I understand the issue, and I try to develop a more detailed understanding of the author's arguments. I try to figure out all of the mathematical bits, but if they are really tough, I skip over them again.
Dr. Maturin, in Patrick O'Brian's The Yellow Admiral
Do markets work, and if they don't, what should be done about it? This question has been at the center of microeconomics since Adam Smith proposed, in The Wealth of Nations (1776), that each individual's self-interested participation in the market system often promotes the greater good of society. Providing a comprehensive answer to this question has been no easy task. The way in which markets work was not fully articulated until Walras outlined the first general equilibrium model in the early 1870s, and the sense in which market outcomes advance society's interests was not defined until Pareto published his major work in 1909. The principles set out by Walras and Pareto formed the basis of a research program that continued into the second half of the twentieth century, culminating in the Arrow-Debreu model of general equilibrium. This model precisely describes the conditions under which free markets yield a socially desirable outcome. These conditions are very restrictive, leading Stiglitz ([63], p. 29) to comment that "in a sense Debreu and Arrow's great achievement was to find the almost singular set of assumptions under which Adam Smith's invisible hand conjecture is correct:
Adam Smith would not have been surprised by this finding. He is often portrayed as an unrelenting advocate of free markets and an opponent of government intervention, but this portrayal is inaccurate. Certainly, he was opposed to some types of government intervention: The Wealth of Nations is in large part a criticism of the mercantile system, under which the government conspired with merchants to develop powerful trading mo- nopolies. But he did not believe that the government should never intervene in economic
matters. Indeed, he argued that the government has three essential duties, including
the duty of erecting and maintaining certain public works and certain public institutions, which it can never be for the interest of any individual, or small number of individuals, to erect and maintain; because the profit could neither repay the expense of any individual or small number of individuals, though it may frequently do much more than repay it to a great society?
John Stuart Mill, writing almost a century later, displayed an equal ambivalence toward free markets. He argued that "laissez faire.., should be the general practice; every departure from it, unless required by some greater good, is a certain evil" but had little difficulty in identifying justifiable interventions, including the regulation of education?
More than a century after Mill, the attitude of mainstream economists is little changed. They oppose monopoly power. They recognize Smith's "public works" as public goods, or as goods with strong positive externalities, and would agree with his call for government action. They might even find in Mill's rationale for the regulation of education - that the consumer is not able to judge the nature of the commodity - an intimation of modern informational economics. They endorse the market system while remaining aware of its shortcomings.
The issue of whether markets work, and what should be done if they don't, forms the core of public economics. While this book is intended to be a textbook in public economics, it examines only this core issue. It excludes a number of topics normally found in public economics textbooks, such as tax incidence and cost-benefit analysis.
This book is also intended to act as a bridge between two modes of economic analysis. Undergraduate students tend to rely upon graphs and simple verbal arguments. By contrast, graduate students rely heavily on extended logical and mathematical analysis. This kind of analysis is also routinely employed by academic economists, and to a lesser degree, by private and public sector economists. The first kind of analysis is employed at the beginning of the book, but there is an increasing reliance on mathematics thereafter.
Let me emphasize, however, that this is not a book in which sophisticated mathe- matical tools are either taught or applied. I have assumed that you can do the sort of things that anyone who has survived a university course in calculus should be able to do. Specifically, I have assumed that you can
? calculate the derivatives of functions of one or more variables, and understand the meaning of these derivatives;
? manipulate an equation to isolate a single variable;
? solve a system of simple equations by recursive substitution.
I believe that you can learn a great deal about economics by formulating issues as mathematical problems and applying the skills that you already have to solve them.
Knowing how to drive a car is quite different from actually driving it: there is no substitute for time behind the wheel. The same thing is true of problem solving. You might know how to calculate a derivative, but that's not the same as knowing when to calculate one and what to do with it when you've got it. I hope that this book will provide you with "time behind the wheel." The chapters are really extended examples of the way in which mathematics can be applied to economic issues. As well, there are questions at the end of the chapters, so you will be able to try your hand at problems that are similar to the ones described in the chapters themselves.
You might be less bothered by the mathematics than by the sheer length of the arguments presented here. In most undergraduate texts, a one-page explanation is a long explanation. Here, mathematical models of the economy are developed over several pages and their solutions are described over several more pages. Reading this kind of material requires a great deal of concentration.
A lack of concentration was my problem when, in the first year of graduate school, I began to read articles in academic journals. I eventually adopted the following strategy, and use it still:
1) When I read an article for the first time, I read it relatively quickly. I try to understand the issue that is being addressed and the way in which the author intends to address it. If I come across verbal arguments or bits of mathematics that I don't readily understand, I skip them.
2) I read the article again, more slowly. I check to make sure that I understand the issue, and I try to develop a more detailed understanding of the author's arguments. I try to figure out all of the mathematical bits, but if they are really tough, I skip over them again.
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