Abstract
Public choice economics is often considered a sub or a separate field from public finance. Traditional public finance courses focus on public goods, externalities, and the solutions to these issues with an emphasis on expenditure and tax policy, addressing different types of taxation at different levels of government. This paper provides a means of integrating public choice theory into a public finance course to highlight the differences in these fields, but also the complementarity. While traditional textbooks touch on political decision-making and themes of public choice, I will explain how an instructor could incorporate these themes throughout the course.
Recommended Citation
(2026)
"Teaching Public Choice Economics in a Public Finance Course,"
Journal of Economics and Finance Education: Vol. 14:
Iss.
2, Article 4.
Available at:
https://scholarship.rollins.edu/jefe/vol14/iss2/4