The economics of public spending : debts, deficits, and economic performance

This book argues that in many jurisdictions free market advocates have resorted to public sector downsizing and privatization as a means of alleviating problems of unemployment and slow economic growth and that, as a consequence, the strategy of reducing public deficits, balancing budgets and achieving surpluses has become widely accepted as the only road to prosperity.

The Economics of Public Spending shows in clear and simple terms that the strategy of public sector downsizing is based on a misleading conception of public finance. The book dispels several myths about public deficits and debts, offering alternative approaches to fiscal and monetary policies. The contributors argue convincingly and authoritatively that the public sector is crucial for economic growth, that budget deficits are required for improving the performance of the private sector and that there is a real need for an economic agenda based on public deficits and low stable real interest rates in order to achieve full employment with high wages, more generous social programmes and sustainable inflation.

This fascinating and challenging book will be of great interest to policymakers in government, academic researchers as well as public finance experts and economists.

Author Notes

Hassan Bougrine is Associate Professor of Economics at Laurentian University, Canada
Joseph Halevi teaches at the University of Sydney in Australia
Peter Kriesler teaches in the School of Economics at the University of New South Wales in Sydney
Marc Lavoie is Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Ottawa
Phillip Anthony O'Hara is Associate Professor of Economics, Curtin University, Perth, Austrialia
Paolo Palazzi is Professor of Economic Development at the University of Rome 'La Sapienza'
Alain Parguez is Professor of Economics at the Universite de Franche-Comte, Besancon (France) and Adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa
Claudio Sardoni is Professor of Economics at the University of Rome 'La Sapienza'
Mario Seccareccia is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa, Canada and lecturer at the Labour College of Canada
John Smithin is Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics and Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, Canada
Atul Sood is working as a Senior Economist at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, Delhi, India

Hassan BougrinePhillip Anthony O'HaraJohn SmithinAlain ParguezMario Seccareccia and Atul SoodMarc LavoieJoseph Halevi and Peter KrieslerClaudio Sardoni and Paolo Palazzi

List of figures	p. vi
List of tables	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. viii
About the contributors	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
1 Fiscal policy and the current crisis: are budget deficits a cause, a consequence or a remedy?	p. 6
2 The evolution of a new 'neoliberal, balanced budget' social structure of accumulation? Emerging prospects for the United States and world economies	p. 30
3 Macroeconomic policy for a post-conservative era: can and should demand management policies be resuscitated?	p. 57
4 The long-run fiscal deflation: a real interpretation of the late twentieth-century world crisis	p. 78
5 Government debt monetization and inflation: a somewhat jaundiced view	p. 98
6 Government deficits in simple Kaleckian models	p. 122
7 On the limitations of fiscal policy: a radical Kaleckian view	p. 135
8 Public investment and growth	p. 150
Index	p. 169

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