The Rise and Fall of the Public Sector in the Estimation of the Economists

Dan Usher

Working Paper from Economics Department, Queen's University

Abstract: From the Wealth of Nations to the present day, there has been a great cycle of opinion about the source of inefficiency, from Smith's sharp and unqualified contrast between private sector enterprise and public sector sloth, to Mill's qualified and reluctant allowance of large domains with the economy where the public sector must act because the private sector would not or could not do so, to Pigou's detailed analysis in the early twentieth century of the defects of the competitive economy, to a recent revival of interest in public sector economics and a reassessment of public sector efficiency reminiscent of the views of Adam Smith.

Pages: 54 pages
Date: 1987
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Chapter: The Rise and Fall of the Public Sector in the Estimation of the Economists (1990)
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