Public Finance and Public Policy | 
 enlarge | Author: Jonathan Gruber
Publisher: Worth Publishers
Category: Book
Buy Used: $100.15
New (26) Used (38) from $100.15
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 12457
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 2nd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 700
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.7
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 7.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 0716766310
Dewey Decimal Number: 336
EAN: 9780716766315
ASIN: 0716766310
Publication Date: January 5, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
When first published, Gruber’s Public Finance and Public Policy brought a refreshingly contemporary approach. It was the first text written from the ground up to reflect current realities of public finance, enhancing its survey of traditional topics with an emphasis on empirical work and coverage of transfer programs and social insurance. The new edition, fully updated with the most recent data and research possible, includes new coverage of the Medicare drug benefit, changes in the tax code, Hurricane Katrina, and the ongoing debate over privatization.
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| Customer Reviews:
 60% of the book is redundant December 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am a student at the University of Michigan. And having studied this book for our public finance class, I would say that the author can actually trim the book to 40% of its current length. If you are good at math, thinks rationally, and have some common sense of how the world works or should work then you can reach the same conclusions without reading the book.
A lot of the material is simply common sense. It talks about what the best public policy is for governments, why there is corruption, best form of education management...etc. However, if you find a smart friend and have a rigorous debate with him/her about government (like what most college students do nowadays) you can easily come to the same conclusion. Then put what you come up with into a very succinct math equation and you would have learned the entire material on your own.
Seriously, as an aspiring Micro theorist/Financial economist, this stuff is a joke. The book actually devotes four pages to a discussion of what corruption is and how it works in the government. Prof. Gruber could seriously shorten that to a page in succinct form. The student's opportunity costs should be considered!
The problem with this book is that it assumes that 1. you have no common sense. 2. you are horrendous at math, and thus irrational. 3. Long, run-on sentences will not bore you to sleep.
Go study micro and macro theory, have a solid understanding of it, read the news regularly, think, and this material will come to you naturally. The book is only good for mentioning important research papers and names which will aid the student in his thought. Beyond that, it is largely useless. Anyone can find the statistical content on their own.
 Textbook highlights contemporary issues and contemporary research October 22, 2005
25 out of 26 found this review helpful
An excellent textbook for an upper level course for economics majors. There is a lot of inertia in textbook choice, but I was finally convinced to adopt Gruber's book when I served as the Lecturer for Stanford University's upper-level seminar in Public Economics. The textbook has high production values and of particular note is its timeliness in covering both current policy issues (Social Security Reform, Fundamental Tax Reform, Education, etc.) and current public economics research (Political Economy, Behavioral Economics, Contract Theory, etc). Most textbooks on the market offer a very dated view of Public Economics, especially in terms of current research. The book explains the findings using intuition and graphs, but provides mathematical detail in mathematical supplements for the ambitious reader. The accompanying website also provides impressive PowerPoint slides. The student response to the textbook was uniformly positive.
The only downsides are the hefty price tag, worsened by the limited secondary market, and for those who want a more mathematically rigorous treatment in courses that require calculus and optimization, the included supplements were helpful, but still limited.
My Dad's book rocks! October 16, 2005
21 out of 59 found this review helpful
My Dad's book is awesome! Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. My name is Sam Gruber, and my Dad is Jonathan Gruber. Seriously. I'm not kidding. I swear. If you don't believe me, ask him. Anyway, the reason I liked this book is because he used my name in it 25 times! (he counted.) I also liked the colors. I really like the cover, because I helped my Dad pick it. All in all, my Dad can write very well, and if he doesn't write another book, well, I'll make him.
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