The State and Your Hard-Earned Money

A Global Perspective on Morality and Public Finance

De: Paolo Mauro

Narrado por: Brian Troxell

How fiscal and economic policy choices reflect moral points of view

How much of your hard-earned money is it fair for the state to tax? What public services should the state finance with that money? Surveys show that people care more about fairness than efficiency in fiscal and economic matters, and that they are increasingly anxious about inequalities of income, wealth, and opportunities. It’s clear that the choices made by policymakers about who benefits from a given economic policy are also moral choices. In this book, economist Paolo Mauro looks at the interplay between moral perspectives and policy decisions. After analyzing how the role of the state has evolved in response to economic transformations and changing notions of good government, he traces the rising gap between actual practice and what citizens consider to be fair taxation and public service provision policies.

Mauro connects fiscal policy trends to insights from other fields, including ideas from moral philosophy, social science surveys on attitudes toward taxation and public services, and studies of corruption. He offers a concise but compelling overview of philosophy relevant to fiscal issues; considers how people perceive inequalities; traces the moral choices made by states as they develop new policies on taxation and spending; and looks at opportunities and incentives for malfeasance within the system. Building on this, Mauro calls for policymakers to engage with a wider range of moral viewpoints. If we are open to ideas from a variety of disciplines, he argues, we can chart a path for fiscal policies that will help preserve democracy, combat inequality, and promote social cohesion.

©2026 Princeton University Press (P)2026 Blackstone Publishing

Reseñas de la Crítica

“This book addresses one of the fundamental challenges of government: how to build a sustainable fiscal contract. Paulo Mauro brings a wealth of personal experience blended with insights from moral philosophy and social science to explore this in a way that should appeal to a wide readership.”

(Tim Besley, London School of Economics and Political Science)

“A wonderful book that tackles the big economic debates about the role of the state, questions of open trade versus localism and the social contract from a fresh perspective. Both intellectually interesting and practically useful.”

(Minouche Shafik, Chief Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister, United Kingdom)

“Paolo Mauro has led groundbreaking real-world research on fiscal policy for thirty years. Importantly, he has always been motivated by what fiscal policy is for: to promote the general welfare. In The State and Your Hard-Earned Money he puts it all together brilliantly. This is the book we need right now as politicians and publics confront imminently rising fiscal demands and constraints.”

(Adam Posen, President, Peterson Institute for International Economics)