The Economics of Public Spending

Debts, Deficits and Economic Performance

Edited by Hassan Bougrine, Full Professor, Laurentian University, Canada

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 book is a most welcome exception in the dominant literature on public spending. While the great majority of economists insist on the importance of sound finance (namely a balanced budget at any cost), Bougrine gives us at long last a book invoking a sound economy, in terms of employment, income distribution and basic welfare. A team of authoritative experts examines the problem from all sides and shows how the two targets can, and should, be reconciled.’
– Augusto Graziani, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, Italy

‘In theoretical expositions of rare reach and clarity, Hassan Bougrine and his colleagues restate the core propositions of Keynes and Kalecki for a new generation. This book is essential for serious students of macroeconomics, especially those perplexed by the incoherence of the new classical theories and the failures of neo-liberalism in practice.’
——詹姆斯·k·加尔布雷斯, University of Texas at Austin and the Jerome Levy Economics Institute, US