Economic Definition of public finance. Defined.
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Term public finance Definition: The study of how the government (or public) sector pays for (or finances) expenditures through taxes and borrowing. Governments produce or provide valuable goods and services, such as education, security, and transportation. They pay for these goods by collecting taxes or, if taxes fall short, by borrowing through the financial markets. Public finance adapts and applies the fundamental microeconomic theory of markets to the public sector and government activity. In particular, this area of study analyzes the efficiency of taxes and the market failure of public goods. Public finance is also key to the study of government stabilization policies that address the inflation and unemployment problems of business cycles. In particular, fiscal policy is the manipulation of government expenditures and taxes to stabilize the business cycle.
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