Investigates the extent of government involvement in the economy, details it's rational, and traces its historical record. The book unites articles published in Fiscal Studies, written by an economist specializing in that field. The chapters apply the tools of orthodox public finance, public choice, modern public economics, and game theory.

1. Introduction ; 2. Public and Private Pension Spending: Principles, Practice and the Need for Reform ; 3. Expenditure on Healthcare in the UK: A Review of the Issues ; 4. Education and Public Policy ; 5. Unemployment and Workers' Compensation Programmes: Rationale, Design, Labour Supply, and Income Support ; 6. What We Spend and What We Get: Public and Private Provision of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice ; 7. On Sharing NATO Defence Burdens in the 1990s and Beyond ; 8. Public and Private Spending for Environmental Protection: A Cross-Country Policy Analysis ; 9. Government Failure in Urban Transportation ; 10. Public Financing of the Arts in England ; 11. Government Spending on Research and Development in the UK

Extended introduction discusses the theory of public expenditure and the overall role of the public sector Cross-country comparisons of expenditure Investigation of alternative approaches to economic analysis Presents policy proposals

David Miles is Professor of Finance at Imperial College, University of London. He is also an economic consultant to Merrill Lynch. He specializes in research on financial markets. Miles worked for the Bank of England for several years after graduating from Oxford. After a spell in the economics department at Birkbeck College, he was Chief UK Economist for Merrill Lynch. He joined Imperial College in 1996. He has published widely on many aspects of finance and macroeconomics. Gareth Myles is Professor of Economics at the University of Exeter and a Research Fellow of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. He specializes in research on public economics. Myles worked at the University of Warwick for five years after completing his D.Phil. at Oxford, and joined Exeter in 1992. He holds editorial positions with Fiscal Studies, the Journal of Public Economic Theory, and the Review of Economic Studies, and has published widely on many aspects of public economics and microeconomics. Ian Preston is a Reader in Economics at University College London, which he joined in 1991 after a Research Fellowship at Nuffield College, Oxford. He is also a Research Fellow of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. His research interests are in applied microeconomics with particular focus on household behaviour and public policy. He has been editor of Fiscal Studies and currently edits the Economic Journal Conference Volume.

Extended introduction discusses the theory of public expenditure and the overall role of the public sector Cross-country comparisons of expenditure Investigation of alternative approaches to economic analysis Presents policy proposals