The New Public Finance: responding to global challenges

Three Challenges for Public Finance

Pierre Pestieau surveys the views of the public-finance profession about its recent past and future directions. The many enthusiastic and positive responses he received brightened up his own prior pessimism about the field, although he remains concerned that the profession is distracted by elegant theoretical exercises that are too restictive to be instructive for important policy questions. As...

New perspectives on public finance: recent achievements and future challenges

The advances in the economics of the public sector during the past quarter century have been as pronounced as in any field within economics. Public finance has become a rigorous branch of applied microeconomics, incorporating the best thinking and most advanced tools of both theoretical economics and econometrics. In the remarks below, I will focus on a few key areas in applied and theoretical ...

The New Dynamic Public Finance

Global Warming : a Public Finance Perspective

How Is WHO Responding to Global Public Health Threats?

I t is a favored pastime of medical editors and journalists (including ourselves) to criticize the World Health Organization (WHO) for, among other things, its " fossilized bureaucracy, " its lack of clear direction and priorities, the dysfunctional relationship between its headquarters and regional offi ces, and its faltering steps towards building partnerships [1,2]. But with the arrival of s...