This non-technical volume analyses topical problems of public finance in a changing world characterized by growing mobility of production factors, liberalized economic policy regimes, and the formation of new nations. and the problems of raising government revenue and of allocating property rights in transition economies.

Preface - Acknowledgements - Public Finance in A Changing World: Introduction and Summary; P.B.Sorensen - PART 1: ALTERNATIVE PERCEPTIONS OF GOVERNMENT - The Role of the State in Fiscal Theory; R.A.Musgrave - Government Role and the Efficiency of Policy Instruments; V.Tanz i - PART 2: THE WELFARE STATE, ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND EMPLOYMENT - Social Insurance, Incentives and Risk Taking; H-W.Sinn - Unemployment in the United States: The Problem and a Proposal; R.Haveman - Unemployment and Public Finance in Europe; F.van der Ploeg - PART 3: PUBLIC FINANCE WITH MANY JURISDICTIONS - Factor Mobility and Redistributive Policy; D.E.Wildasin - Theory and Practice of Confederate Finances; D.Mihaljek - Reform and Coordination of Company Taxes in the European Union; S.Cnossen - PART 4: ECONOMIES IN TRANSITION: RAISING REVENUE AND ALLOCATING PROPERTY RIGHTS - Tax Reform in Transition Economies: Experiences From the Croatian Tax Reform Process; M.Rose & R.Wiswesser - The Sales Policy of the Treuhandanstalt as a Privatization Strategy; G.Sinn - Index

'This volume sees some of the world's leading scholars in public economics build a bridge between theory and practice. They show how modern public economics can shed light on the most pressing public policy issues of our time' - Lans Bovenberg, CPS Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis 'Peter Birch Sorensen has done a superb job in assembling a collection focussed on the most urgent problems facing real world public finance: strains in the institutions of advanced welfare states, persistent unemployment in Europe and inequality in the USA, constraints imposed by ever increasing openness of the world's national economies and the creation of new institutions in formerly socialist systems. Policymakers will be grateful for the guidance offered; students of public finacne will be stimulated by this rich mine of applied analysis' - David F.Bradford, Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton University