The Langenderfer Library: Classics in Tax, Economics, and Accounting

Jeff Hoopes
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Explore classic works in taxation, economics, and accounting through accessible audio readings. The Langenderfer Library brings influential ideas from the past to today’s students, scholars, and curious listeners.

  1. Jul 30

    The Burdens of Local Taxation and Who Bears Them — Lawson Purdy

    Who really pays local property taxes—the legal taxpayer, the tenant, the landowner, or the consumer? Lawson Purdy examines how taxes on land and buildings affect rents, property values, development, and the distribution of municipal burdens. Moving beyond the person named on the tax bill, Purdy traces how local levies are shifted through markets and argues for assessment practices that distinguish land value from improvements. The essay is an early and practical contribution to the study of tax incidence and urban fiscal reform.

  2. Jul 30

    National Taxation After the War — Alfred Marshall

    How should a nation distribute the heavy fiscal burden left by war? Alfred Marshall evaluates income taxation, taxes on capital and expenditure, and duties on imports while weighing revenue needs against equity, saving, production, and economic recovery. Marshall argues for a tax system sensitive to family responsibilities and capacity to pay, with strongly graduated burdens and careful attention to the shifting of taxes. His discussion also reaffirms the case for free trade under the altered international conditions of the postwar world.

  3. Jul 30

    Answers to Questions Put by the Local Taxation Commission — Francis Y. Edgeworth

    How should local taxes be distributed, and who ultimately bears rates imposed on land, houses, and other property? Francis Y. Edgeworth answers questions posed by Britain’s Royal Commission on Local Taxation, translating principles of incidence and equitable sacrifice into practical policy analysis. Edgeworth considers the shifting of local rates, the treatment of site values, and the competing claims of owners, occupiers, and the wider community. The testimony offers an unusually direct application of economic theory to the design and reform of local taxation.

  4. Jul 30

    The Place of the Income Tax in the Reform of State Taxation — Thomas S. Adams

    What role should an income tax play in repairing state revenue systems? Thomas S. Adams examines the weaknesses of the general property tax and considers how income taxation can improve fairness, reach forms of wealth that escape assessment, and provide a more workable basis for public revenue. Writing during a formative period in American tax administration, Adams connects tax design to enforcement, taxpayer capacity, and the proper division of revenue sources. The essay captures the practical and institutional thinking that helped shape the modern state income tax.

  5. Jul 30

    On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation — David Ricardo

    What determines the distribution of national income among workers, capitalists, and landowners? David Ricardo develops a systematic account of value, wages, profits, rent, trade, money, and taxation—placing distribution at the center of political economy. From comparative advantage and diminishing returns to the incidence of taxes on rent, profits, wages, and commodities, Ricardo traces how economic forces and public policy interact. This landmark work helped define classical economics and continues to shape debates over trade, growth, and taxation.

  6. Jul 30

    The Burden of War and Future Generations — A. C. Pigou

    Can the economic burden of war be shifted to future generations by borrowing rather than taxing? A. C. Pigou separates the immediate use of labor and resources from the later financial obligations created by public debt. By distinguishing real costs from transfers among taxpayers and bondholders, Pigou clarifies how war finance affects saving, capital formation, and the distribution of burdens across time. The analysis remains a classic guide to thinking about debt-financed public expenditure.

  7. Jul 30

    Inflation as a Method of Taxation — John Maynard Keynes

    How can printing money function as a tax? John Maynard Keynes explains how inflation transfers real resources from holders of money to the government by reducing the currency’s purchasing power, even when no conventional tax bill is issued. Using the quantity theory of money, Keynes traces who bears this hidden levy, why governments find it tempting, and why repeated inflation eventually undermines the tax base itself. The essay offers a lucid account of seigniorage, distributional effects, and the destructive dynamics of extreme inflation.

  8. Jul 30

    Taxation (Chapter XVI) — W. Stanley Jevons

    Why must governments tax, and how can taxes be raised with the least unfairness and economic disruption? W. Stanley Jevons surveys direct and indirect taxation, customs and excise duties, income and property taxes, and the often-elusive question of who ultimately bears a tax. Building on Adam Smith’s maxims, Jevons emphasizes equality, certainty, convenience, and economy in collection. The chapter provides an accessible introduction to tax incidence and the practical design of public revenue systems.

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Explore classic works in taxation, economics, and accounting through accessible audio readings. The Langenderfer Library brings influential ideas from the past to today’s students, scholars, and curious listeners.

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