Wagner’s influence in public economics
His most lasting influence is his reasoning on the functions of the state including Wagner’s law. His conceptualizations of collective needs and collective goods must not only be seen as a conclusive summary of pertinent German reasoning since Hermann, but also as a starting point of the development of modern public goods theory and merit wants: considering writings by Sax, Wicksell (1896), Lindahl and Cassel, Adolph Wagner is the point of reference.
Moreover, he foreshadowed Musgrave’s tripartite division of the subject, stressing allocation and distribution as separate branches of public sector economy: Wagner distinguished between “social-welfare” purposes of taxation and its functional role as revenue for financing government expenditures.Rudolf Dujmovits and Richard Sturn
See also:
German and Austrian schools (II); Public economics (III).