Toward a Radical Theory of Fiscal Incidence

Orthodox expenditure and fiscal incidence studies seem to be ob jective analyses of the budgetary impact of the public sector; they are, in fact, based on an important assumption about the State, which, when changed, also significantly changes the results of these studies. This article summarizes a com parison of an orthodox model and a radical model and finds support for the con tention that orthodox incidence studies mystify the purpose and impact of gov ernment budgets.