Book excerpt: The current state of research in the international public finance field is elucidated in the fifteen papers collected in this volume, selected from among the more than 200 that were presented at the 53rd Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance held in Kyoto, Japan, in August 1997. The collection assembled here is not intended to comprise a proceedings of the Congress but, rather, presents the ideas of eminent scholars in seven areas of current research in the international public finance field: The Welfare State, Public Investment and Economic Growth, Inter-Governmental Relations, Tax Competition and Foreign Direct Investment, Foreign Investment in Transitional Economies-Russia and China, and Equalization Transfer Systems in Japan and Australia. The highlight of the Congress was the brilliant debate between two of the greatest authorities in the area of public finance, James M. Buchanan and Richard A. Musgrave, whose papers form the opening section of the volume.