Conference: New Directions in Theoretical Public Economics, June 1998, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

该奖项支持1998年春季在阿拉巴马大学举行的一次会议，名为《理论公共财政新方向》。会议的目的是将新兴理论公共经济学领域的领先研究人员聚集在一起，通过研究报告和讨论解决公共经济学中以下确定的新问题。公共经济学中的许多新范式和新见解都是现代博弈论(例如，进化博弈)和一般均衡方法应用于公共经济学问题的结果。这次会议进一步推动了将现代方法应用于公共经济学的趋势，将更有经验的公共经济学研究人员与对公共经济学中新出现的问题感兴趣的年轻博弈论者和数学经济学家聚集在一起。事实证明，竞争性市场是在复杂社会中分配稀缺资源的有效机构。在全球范围内，以市场为基础的经济蓬勃发展，而基于其他经济组织形式的经济却没有。在一个以自由市场和私有财产为基础的经济体中，政府应该在经济活动中扮演什么角色？传统观点认为，政府有两个主要职能：(I)纠正市场失灵，确保市场运转良好(例如，通过监管和维持保护私人财产的法院和法律体系，并确保合同得到执行)；(Ii)提供公共产品，如国防、教育、道路(通过税收和支出)。关注政府及其在经济活动中的作用的经济学分支被称为公共经济学。随着全球经济的出现，国家政府在经济活动中发挥的传统作用(即防止和倾向于市场失灵以及提供公共产品)变得更加有问题，与这些传统政府活动有关的政策问题变得更加微妙和复杂。公共经济学中重要的全球环境问题最近变得突出起来(例如蒙特利尔、里约热内卢和今年晚些时候的京都议定书)，其中一些问题往往极具争议性，已经(而且必须)在全球一级加以处理。在走向全球经济的同时，美国逐渐意识到，大政府带来了许多问题，这些问题可能会干扰市场的有效运作，以及有效政府政策的制定和实施。在美国经济中，人口增长和老龄化带来的对政府项目和服务的需求日益增长，加上已经很高的政府债务水平，促使经济学家开始重新思考如何最好地开展传统的政府活动-更重要的是，质疑一些传统的政府活动是否应该留给市场。通过类似市场的机构可以在多大程度上分散提供公共产品？支持健康、教育、福利和环境的项目的融资、设计和实施能否有效地委托给州和地方政府等较小的司法管辖区？在哪些领域和在什么情况下，各国政府在执行这类方案方面具有比较优势？分权和小政府的运动将对市场经济产生什么影响。如何设计一个有效的、预算平衡的财政制度来保护合法的公共利益？这样的财政体系会对整体经济活动产生什么影响？这些都是公共经济学中的一些紧迫问题。新的理论范式已经开始在公共经济学中出现，它们将提供对政府和经济相互作用的更深层次的理解。最终，这些范式将导致对公共经济学中复杂的政策问题采取新的科学方法，上面提到了其中一些问题。

Project Abstract This award supports a conference, New Directions in Theoretical Public Finance, held at the University of Alabama in Spring, 1998. The aim of the conference is to bring together leading researchers in emerging areas of theoretical public economics to address via research presentations and discussions the new problems in public economics identified below. Many of the new paradigms and insights in public economics are the result of applications of modern game theory (e.g., evolutionary games) and general equilibrium methods to problems in public economics. This conference furthers the trend toward the application of modern methods to public economics by bringing together more experienced researchers in public economics with younger game theorist and mathematical economists interested in emerging problems in public economics. Competitive markets have proved to be effective institutions for allocating scarce resources in complex societies. Globally, market-based economies have flourished, while economies based on other forms of economic organization have not. In an economy based on free markets and private property, what role should government play in economic activity? The traditional view holds that government has two main functions: (i) to rectify market failures and ensure that markets are well-functioning (via, for example, regulation and maintaining a system of courts and laws protecting private property and ensuring enforcement of contracts); and (ii) to provide public goods, such as national defense, education, roads (via taxation and expenditure). That branch of economics which focuses on government and its role in the economy activity is called public economics. With the emergence of a global economy, the traditional roles played by national governments in economic activity (i.e., preventing and tending to market failures and providing public goods) have become more problematic, and the policy issues related to these traditional governmental activities have become more subtle and complex. Important global environmental issues of public economics have recently become prominent (e.g., Montreal, Rio de Janeiro, and later this year Kyoto) and some of those issues, often highly controversial, already are (and must be) dealt with at the global level. Simultaneously with the movement toward a global economy, there has been in the US a gradual realization that big government brings with it many problems which may interfere with the efficient functioning of markets as well as with the development and implementation of effective government policies. In the US Economy the increasing demand for government programs and services brought by an expanding and aging population together with the already high level of government indebtedness have led economist to begin rethinking how traditional governmental activities can best be carried out - and more importantly, to question whether or not some traditionally governmental activities should be left to the market. To what extent can the provision of public goods be decentralized via market-like institutions? Can the financing, design and implementation of programs to support health, education, welfare, and the environment be efficiently delegated to smaller jurisdictions such as state and local governments? In what areas and under what circumstances do national governments have a comparative advantage in implementing such programs? What impact will the movement toward decentralization and small government have upon a market economy. How can one design an efficient, budget-balancing fiscal system that safeguards legitimate public interests? What impact would such a fiscal system have on overall economic activity? These are some of the pressing issues in public economics. New theoretical paradigms which will provide a deeper understanding of the interactions of governments and economies have begun to emerge in public economics. Ultimately these paradigms will lead to new scientific approaches to complex policy questions in public economics, some of which were touched on above.