Ma Jun: Demand and Supply of Public Goods

Named as Demand and Supply of Public Goods, this book was intended to highlight the difference with orthodox public finance, and besides to connect with neoclassical economics. Traditionally, the study of finance does not include any theories about the demand of public goods or services, nor the supply of them. Public goods and services is not the center of this discipline. Price theory has been applied directly in Finance, but only to speculate the response of individuals and companies to financial system. If an alien scholar came to our planet in the age of post-Marshal, when he learned the literatures of Finance, he might come to a conclusion that government exists independent from its people, and the purpose of levying tax from individuals and companies is to enrich the country. He might also think that Positive Finance is intended to speculate the effect of taxation, and Normative Finance, which includes many positive elements, is intended to offer suggestions about how to levy tax.