《公共经济学杂志》的目的是鼓励对公共经济学问题做出原创的科学贡献，特别强调现代经济理论和定量分析方法的应用。它为国际读者提供了一个讨论公共政策的论坛。一经要求，出版商可提供包含卷1-50的主索引。
The aim of the Journal of Public Economics is to encourage original scientific contributions on the problems of public economics, with particular emphasis on the application of modern economic theory and methods of quantitative analysis. It provides a forum for discussion of public policy of interest to an international readership.A master index encompassing volumes 1-50 is available from the publisher upon request.