Key Questions to Organize and Guide Your Study

Here are several key questions to guide your learning about the principles of public fiance. Think about these questions as you read the material:

• How does public finance differ from private finance?
• Why might it not be in a society’s best interest to rely on the private sector to provide all goods and services in an economy?
• When is it in a society’s best interest to have governments provide particular goods and services?
• Why might decisions about the acquisition and use of public resources be suboptimal?
• Why does the lack of market feedback complicate the provision of public goods and services?