'Public goods' before Samuelson: interwar Finanzwissenschaft and Musgrave's synthesis

Richard Sturn

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2010, vol. 17, issue 2, 279-312

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the foundations of modern Public Economics, in particular of concepts related to the justification of public activities and the properties of public economy mechanisms. As a first approximation, Public Economics a la Musgrave can be understood as a synthesis of Pigovian Public Finance and the Wicksell-Lindahl tradition. Musgrave's intellectual background includes a more encompassing and differentiated spectrum of influences, including elements from German communal traditions, fiscal sociology, Austrian marginal utility theory, and Italian Public Finance. German language Finanzwissenschaft in the interwar period was a fertile environment for new combinations. German-educated US economists Richard Musgrave and Gerhard Colm transformed seeds from this environment into lasting achievements. Their acquaintance with the broad range of approaches characteristic of interwar Finanzwissenschaft was a necessary condition for the role they played in the development of modern Public Economics. Moreover, Musgrave's influence on modern Public Economics is an example of how the dissemination of innovations is enhanced by a suitable expository framework. By contrast, the conceptual gap between Anglo-Saxon Public Economics and Gerhard Colm's version of a synthesis (even though the latter influenced or paralleled the Musgravian synthesis in important respects) prevented its swift absorption.

Keywords: Public goods; social goods; merit wants; public economics; state (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09672560903320084 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:17:y:2010:i:2:p:279-312

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/REJH20

DOI: 10.1080/09672560903320084

Access Statistics for this article

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought is currently edited by José Luís Cardoso

More articles in The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().