ability to pay
The principle that taxes should be levied on the basis of taxpayers' ability to pay. This normally leads to the view that as income or wealth increases, its marginal utility (its value to its owner) ...
Aboriginal economic development
Since 1788 and the European colonisation of Australia, the continental population has grown rapidly and national income has increased, making Australia one of the world's rich or developed nations. ...
agency relationship
The explicit and implicit contractual relationship between the principal, as owner, and the agent, as manager. See agency problem.
altruism
Behavior of an individual that benefits others. To the extent that the “others” are related to the altruist (the one exhibiting altruistic behavior), such actions may actually be an expression of ...
amenity
The useful or desirable features of a place, that provide non‐monetary benefits to those who use it but which are not necessary for its use. An amenity can be natural (such as an attractive location ...
benefit principle
The principle that the cost of public expenditures should be met by those who benefit from them. This is an alternative to the ability to pay principle. The benefit principle faces several ...
club
The decades after the Restoration saw a proliferation of clubs and societies in London and the main provincial cities, many of them meeting in taverns or coffee‐houses. Though the most famous club, ...
collective-action problem
Any situation in which the uncoordinated actions of each player may not result in the best outcome he or she can achieve. Two famous examples are Chicken and Prisoners' Dilemma, another class of ...
crowding
A collective or public good is said to suffer from crowding if the ratio of individual benefit to total cost declines as the number of people who use or enjoy the good increases; in short, the more ...
fiscal policy
Those instruments at the disposal of government to achieve its policy objectives relating to government expenditure, taxation, and budget deficits or surpluses (cf. monetary policy).
free rider
A person or organization who benefits from a public good but neither provides it nor contributes to the cost of collective provision. They thus free ride on the efforts of others. The free-rider ...
good
A commodity or service regarded by economists as satisfying a human need. An economic good is one that is both needed and sufficiently scarce to command a price.
Groves–Clark mechanism
A solution to the problem of soliciting individual valuations of public goods, developed independently by Theodore Groves and Edward Clarke. (William Vickrey is also sometimes credited for his ...
hegemony
A term especially associated with Gramsci, to whom it denotes the concealed domination of all the positions of institutional power and influence by members of just one class. The hegemony of one ...
Lindahl equilibrium
A method for determining what quantity of a public good should be provided and how its cost should be allocated across consumers. The Lindahl equilibrium is obtained by announcing the share of the ...
local public good
A public good that is available only within a limited geographical area. Examples include a radio signal that can be received only within a limited distance of the transmitter, and a school that ...
Mancur Olson
(1932–98)American economist with huge influence on political science. His first name was pronounced with a soft ‘c’. He wrote three big books—big in ideas although not in bulk. The most influential ...
market economy
An economy in which a substantial proportion of goods are allocated by the use of markets. This is contrasted with a planned economy, in which most goods are allocated by a centralized ...
market failure
A situation in which a market does not operate efficiently. Factors that may cause market failure include the possession of market power by transactors, externalities, or information problems. See ...
mechanism design
The construction of a game of strategic interaction that achieves a specific outcome. Mechanism design chooses the structure of a game so that the players of the game find it in their best interest ...
