How Big Should Our Government Be [Paperback]

The size of government is arguably the most controversial discussion in United States politics, and this issue won't fade from prominence any time soon. There must surely be a tipping point beyond which more government taxing and spending harms the economy, but where is that point? In this accessible book, best-selling authors Jeff Madrick, Jon Bakija, Lane Kenworthy, and Peter Lindert try to answer whether our government can grow any larger and examine how we can optimize growth and fair distribution.

Jon Bakijais Professor of Economics at Williams College.Lane Kenworthyis Professor of Sociology and Yankelovich Chair in Social Thought at the University of California, San Diego.Peter Lindertis Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California, Davis.Jeff Madrickis Director of the Bernard L. Schwartz Rediscovering Government Initiative at the Century Foundation, editor ofChallengemagazine, and a frequent contributor to theNew York Review of Books.

"If you would like a low-key, reasonably argued, nonideological discussion of the economic role of the government in the United States, one based on facts and on research using the facts, this is just the book for you."—Robert Solow, Nobel Laureate in Economics and Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"How big the government should be, what it should do, and how it should do it are among the most fundamental questions in economics and public policy. Too often, in the public arena, real consideration of these issues is drowned out by ideology, slogans, pledges, wishful thinking, and people making up their own facts. This short, insightful book is an antidote. The authors embrace the big questions about government and apply a very readable combination of theory, logic, and evidence. The work is descriptive and prescriptive, informative and provocative, thoughtful alÓ5