The Methodological Evolution Of Western Public Economic Research Since 1970: Stages And Characteristics

Public economics is an important branch of economics. Studying the issues of public sectors'activities and their interaction with private sectors in a mixed economy is the character of public economics. Western academic quarters have been dedicated to stimulating reaearch rapidly growing field of public economics since the early 1970s.This paper begins with the research subject of"the development history of western public economic research".With a review of the research status in this aspect, the availablity and advantage of the methodological perspective on the the development history of western public economic research has been expounded, the desirability of selecting 1970 as the historic beginning year also proved. The study has two objectives, the first is to attempt to describle the historical stages of the nearly forty years'history of western public economic research; the second is to demonstrate the pros and cons of various methods and tools in the western public economic research, and then announce the tendency and character of practicability in public economic research.From methodological perspective, the author could discuss a large scope of sub-fields of public economics as possible as he can, without confining the analysis to one or several sub-fields as existing literatures, moreover, he can analyze deeply with the help of using examples.A two-period frame has been proprosed to describle the development history of western public economic research, the first period from 1970 to 1979, and the second period from 1980 to now.The first period is described as a golden age of high theory, but dull in research methods.The theory of optimal taxation and showing preferences for public good made public economics to the peak of theoretical innovation when it had just jumped into the stage of economics. From methodological perspective, the achievement in this period depended heavily on the application of analytical framework and methodologies of orthodox economics, however, the defects of orthodox methodologies restricted those research works showing immediate remarkable policy implications.The second period is identified as a long and mediocre stage of high theory, many studies just expaned or were inspired by the 1970s'work. But methodologically, public economic research began to break through the dull atmosphere. Besides orthodox methodologies, researchers introduced a series of new methodologies including experimental approach, computational algorithms and behavioral economics. What's more, researchers tried to take full advantage of different methods to achieve synergic effect, to strengthen the ablitiy in understanding the economic and social phenomina, analyzing and evaluating public policies. Public economic research has been towards practicability.