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The Role of the State in the Fiscal Theory

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Public Finance in a Changing World

Abstract

Public finance explores the fiscal tools of the state and how they can best be used to meet the goals of public policy. It is not surprising therefore to find different theories of state to be associated with different approaches to public finance. How fiscal instruments function is a matter of economics, but the purposes to which they are put depend on the image of a ‘good society’ and the state’s role therein. Fiscal theory, therefore, is not a matter of economics only; and that, I will add, is its particular appeal.

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Authors
  1. Richard A. Musgrave
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Copenhagen, Denmark

    Peter Birch Sørensen (Professor of Economics) (Professor of Economics)

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© 1998 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Musgrave, R.A. (1998). The Role of the State in the Fiscal Theory. In: Sørensen, P.B. (eds) Public Finance in a Changing World. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-14336-8_2

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