IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eujhet/v17y2010i2p279-312.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

'Public goods' before Samuelson: interwar Finanzwissenschaft and Musgrave's synthesis

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Sturn

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the foundations of modern Public Economics, in particular of concepts related to the justification of public activities and the properties of public economy mechanisms. As a first approximation, Public Economics a la Musgrave can be understood as a synthesis of Pigovian Public Finance and the Wicksell-Lindahl tradition. Musgrave's intellectual background includes a more encompassing and differentiated spectrum of influences, including elements from German communal traditions, fiscal sociology, Austrian marginal utility theory, and Italian Public Finance. German language Finanzwissenschaft in the interwar period was a fertile environment for new combinations. German-educated US economists Richard Musgrave and Gerhard Colm transformed seeds from this environment into lasting achievements. Their acquaintance with the broad range of approaches characteristic of interwar Finanzwissenschaft was a necessary condition for the role they played in the development of modern Public Economics. Moreover, Musgrave's influence on modern Public Economics is an example of how the dissemination of innovations is enhanced by a suitable expository framework. By contrast, the conceptual gap between Anglo-Saxon Public Economics and Gerhard Colm's version of a synthesis (even though the latter influenced or paralleled the Musgravian synthesis in important respects) prevented its swift absorption.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Sturn, 2010. "'Public goods' before Samuelson: interwar Finanzwissenschaft and Musgrave's synthesis," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 279-312.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:17:y:2010:i:2:p:279-312
    DOI: 10.1080/09672560903320084
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09672560903320084
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09672560903320084?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James M. Buchanan & Richard A. Musgrave, 1999. "Public Finance and Public Choice: Two Contrasting Visions of the State," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262024624, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay, 2014. "On the Definition of Public Goods. Assessing Richard A. Musgrave's contribution," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 14004, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    2. Aleksander Rubinstein, 2013. "The theory of patronized goods in the optics of comparative methodology," International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge, Center for International Scientific Research of VSO and VSPP, vol. 1(1), pages 4-32, December.
    3. Рубинштейн Александр Яковлевич, "undated". "Методологический Анализ Теории Опекаемых Благ: Научный Доклад [methodological analysis of the Theory of Patronized Goods. Research report]," Working papers a:pru175:ye:2014:1, Institute of Economics.
    4. Рубинштейн Александр Яковлевич, "undated". "Теория Опекаемых Благ И Патернализм В Экономических Теориях: Общее И Особенное [The Theory of Patronized Goods and the Paternalism in Economic Theories: General and Special]," Working papers a:pru175:ye:2015:1, Institute of Economics.
    5. Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay, 2017. "Paternalism and the public household. On the domestic origins of public economics," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01560189, HAL.
    6. Richard Sturn, 2021. "Der Staat heute: Marktversagen und die Voraussetzungen öffentlicher Handlungsfähigkeit," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 47(1), pages 15-39.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marek Wigier, 2015. "Results of Support for Agriculture during the CAP Implementation in Poland," Oblik i finansi, Institute of Accounting and Finance, issue 1, pages 134-144, March.
    2. Christoph March & Ina Schieferdecker, 2021. "Technological Sovereignty as Ability, Not Autarky," CESifo Working Paper Series 9139, CESifo.
    3. Christian Jaramillo, 2009. "Research and Development in Culture: A Case for Cross Subsidies in the Arts," Documentos CEDE 5346, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    4. Pierre Salmon, 2001. "Constitutional Implications of Electoral Assumptions," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 333-349, December.
    5. J. Ronnie Davis, 2020. "History of a Journal: Public Finance Quarterly to Public Finance Review," Public Finance Review, , vol. 48(3), pages 285-302, May.
    6. Jaelani, Aan, 2017. "Manajemen pengeluaran publik di Indonesia: Tinjauan ekonomi Islam pada APBN 2017 [Public expenditure management in Indonesia: Islamic economic review on state budget 2017]," MPRA Paper 77423, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 07 Mar 2017.
    7. Zan Oplotnik & Bostjan Brezovnik, 2004. "Financing local government in Slovenia," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 483-496.
    8. Hagemann, Harald, 2024. "Émigré Economists In America: Their Impact And Their Experiences," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(4), pages 576-584, December.
    9. Nick Cowen, 2018. "Robust Against Whom?," Advances in Austrian Economics, in: Austrian Economics: The Next Generation, volume 23, pages 91-111, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    10. Massimo Florio & Sara Colautti, 2005. "A logistic growth theory of public expenditures: A study of five countries over 100 years," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 122(3), pages 355-393, March.
    11. Matthew Weinzierl, 2018. "Revisiting the Classical View of Benefit‐based Taxation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(612), pages 37-64, July.
    12. Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay, 2017. "Paternalism and the public household. On the domestic origins of public economics," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 17032, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    13. Bagchi, Amaresh & Chakraborty, Pinaki, 2004. "Towards a rational system of centre-state revenue transfers in India: An exploration," Working Papers 04/16, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    14. Karl Case, 2008. "Musgrave’s vision of the public sector: the complex relationship between individual, society and state in public good theory," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 32(4), pages 348-355, October.
    15. Ortiz, Isabel, & Cummins, Matthew. & Karunanethy, Kalaivani., 2015. "Fiscal space for social protection and the SDGs options to expand social investments in 187 countries," ILO Working Papers 994877663402676, International Labour Organization.
    16. Hefeker, Carsten, 2003. "Ressourcenverteilung in der EU: Eine polit-okonomische Perspektive," Discussion Paper Series 26229, Hamburg Institute of International Economics.
    17. Gvozdeva, Margarita (Гвоздева, Маргарита) & Kazakova, M.V. (Казакова, М.В.) & Kiblitskaya, T.R. (Киблицкая, Т.Р.), 2017. "The Concept of Human Capital and its Evolution in the History of Economic Thought [Понятие Человеческого Капитала И Его Эволюция В Истории Экономической Мысли]," Working Papers 051733, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    18. -, 2020. "Panorama Fiscal de América Latina y el Caribe, 2020: la política fiscal ante la crisis derivada de la pandemia de la enfermedad por coronavirus (COVID-19)," Libros y Documentos Institucionales, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 45730 edited by Cepal, February.
    19. Allan Barton, 2009. "The Use and Abuse of Accounting in the Public Sector Financial Management Reform Program in Australia," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 45(2), pages 221-248, June.
    20. Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay, 2014. "On the Definition of Public Goods. Assessing Richard A. Musgrave's contribution," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 14004, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:17:y:2010:i:2:p:279-312. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REJH20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.