Explorations in Public Sector Economics

This book is a collection of never-before-published papers from some of the most prominent voices in public economics. Curated by the current director of the Public Choice Society, the papers presented showcase the work of recognized leaders in the field, including a Nobel Laureate (Gary Becker), Past Presidents of the Public Choice Society (Larry Kenny, Edward Lopez), the Past President of the Southern Economic Association (Dwight Lee) and some of the most notable public choice economists (Bruce Benson, Russell Sobel, JR Clark, Art Denzau, Morris Coats, Richard Vedder). Among the broad list of topics covered are voting, education quality, environmental issues, externality theory, and public goods theory. This volume makes an important contribution to the field by making new perspectives on a variety of topics accessible to researchers. This book will be of interest to economists, political scientists, and researchers interested in public policy.

Dr. Joshua Hall (editor) is an Associate Professor at the College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University. His areas of interest include applied microeconomics, with an emphasis on economic freedom, state and local public finance and entrepreneurship. In addition to being the author of more than 50 articles in journals such as Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Public Administration, Research, and Theory, Contemporary Economic Policy, and Southern Economic Journal, he is co-author of the widely-cited Economic Freedom of the World annual report.

1. Gary Becker and Casey Mulligan, "Is Voting Rational or Instrumental?".- 2. Joseph Bial, Daniel Houser, and Gary Libecap, "Public Choice Issues in International Collective Action: Global Warming Regulation.".- 3. John Joseph Wallis, "What Determines the Allocation of National Government Grants to the States.".- 4. William Pierce, "Why Would Bond Referenda Fail? Do They?".- 5. Russell Sobel and Bob Lawson, "The Effect of Early Media Projections on Presidential Voting in the Florida Panhandle.".- 6. Morris Coats, T. R. Dalton and Art Denzau, "Ballots, Bribes, and Brand Name Political Capital.".- 7. Edward Lopez and W. Robert Nelson, "The Endowment Effect in a Public Good Experiment.".- 8. J.R. Clark and Dwight Lee, "Too Inexpensive to Be Inexpensive: How Government Censorship Increases Costs by Disguising Them.".- 9. Roger Meiners, "Bad Economics, Good Law: The Concept of Externality.".- 10. Lowell E. Gallaway and Richard K. Vedder, "The Great Depression: A Tale of Three Paradigms".- 11. Katie Sherron and Lawrence W. Kenny, "The Effect of Inter-School District Competition on Student Achievement: The Role of Long-Standing State Policies Prohibiting the Formation of New School Districts".- 12. Bruce Benson, "Are Roads Public Goods, Club Goods, Private Goods, or Common Pools?".