Public Finance

Part I: Introduction: The Content and Methodology of Public Sector Theory
Introduction to Normative Public Sector Theory
A General Equilibrium Model for Public Sector Analysis
First-Best and Second-Best Analysis and the Political Economy of Public Sector Economics
Part II: The Theory of Public Expenditures and Taxation: First-Best Analysis
The Social Welfare Function in Policy Analysis
The Problem of Externalities: An Overview
Consumption Externalities
Production Externalities
The US Anti-Pollution Policies: An Application of Externality Theory
The Theory of Decreasing Cost Production
The First-Best Theory of Taxation
Applying First-Best Principles of Taxation: What to Tax and How
Part III: The Theory of Public Expenditures and Taxation: Second-Best Analysis
Introduction to Second-Best Analysis
The Second-Best Theory of Taxation in One-Consumer Economies with Linear Production Technology
The Second-Best Theory of Taxation with General Production Technologies and Many Consumers
Taxation under Asymmetric Information
The Theory and Measurement of Tax Incidence
Expenditure Incidence and Economy-Wide Incidence Studies
The Second-Best Theory of Public Expenditures--Overview
Transfer Payments and Private Information
Externalities in a Second-Best Environment
Decreasing Costs and the Theory of the Second Best--the Boiteux Problem
General Production Rules in a Second-Best Environment
Part IV: Cost-Benefit Analysis
Introduction--the Issues of Cost-Benefit Analysis
The Rate of Discount for Public Investments
Uncertainty and the Arrow-Lind Problem
Measurement Problems in Cost-Benefit Analysis
Co

Professor Richard W. Tresch earned a bachelor's degree from Williams College in 1965 and a doctorate in economics in 1973 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a teaching assistant prior to his arrival at Boston College. He joined the Boston College faculty in 1969 and throughout his 43-year career has served as Chairman of the Department of Economics, Director of Graduate Studies, and Director of Undergraduate Studies.

In 1996, chosen as Massachusetts Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He was one of 585 national entrants in the foundation's US Professors of the Year Program, which salutes outstanding undergraduate instructors; its award is recognized as one of the most prestigious honors bestowed upon professors. "I am quite humbled by the award, and extremely grateful to the Carnegie Foundation," Tresch said. "The greatest honor, however, is to have been nominated by Boston College. There are so many good teachers here and to be chosen to represent them in the program is something I truly value."

A member of the American Economic Association, Tresch served on the board of editors for the American Economic Review, and has contributed to New England Journal of Business and Economics and Public Finance. He is the editor of a four-volume major reference work on public sector economics.
The third edition on his textbook, Public Finance: A Normative Theory publishes in November, 2014.