1. Market possibilities and prescriptions -- 2. Evaluating public finance policy: consumer surplus, welfare criteria and market failure -- 3. Public goods -- 4. Collective decision-making; searching for the 'public interest' -- 5. Rent-seeking, public provision and the 'return to the market' -- 6. Evaluation of public expenditure: cost-benefit analysis -- 7. Tax theory: the basic concepts -- 8. Tax evasion and the black economy -- 9. Income (re)distribution -- 10. Central government -- 11. Public choice aspects of macroeconomic policies -- 12. Local government -- 13. International issues in public finance -- 14. Public sector failure and public expenditure growth -- 15. 'Normative' optimal taxation -- 16. 'Positive' optimal taxation.