The welfare aspects of public economics will receive extensively renewed examination in this Third Edition. With four new chapters and other significant revisions, it will present detailed and comprehensive coverage of theoretical literature, empirical work, environmental issues, social insurance, behavioral economics, and international tax issues. With increased emphasis on the European Union, it will be rigid enough for use by Ph.D.'s while being accessible to student less well trained in math. Public Finance remains the premier textbook on the normative theory of government policy, with the Third Edition propelling into the 21st century its examination of what government ought to be doing instead of what it is doing. * Moves skillfully from explaining normative theory to applying it in mathematically compact and precise terms. *Adds four new chapters on social insurance, medical care, social security pensions, behavioral public economics, and international public finance. *Includes new pedagogical supplements, including end-of-chapter questions and answers. *Emphasizes European examples