Eco 341: Public Economics and Public Policy

Eco 341: Public Economics and Public Policy

Semester
Spring
Offered
2020

Many policy debates, including raising top taxes, EITC expansion, and healthcare reform, involve assessing how policy changes would affect economic activity, government budgets, and the distribution of resources. Our new undergraduate course will explore several policy areas and focus on applied economic and empirical methods to show how economists combine theory and data to evaluate such policies. The main topics are:

  1. Overview of public economics and US fiscal policy
  2. Low income support: EITC and welfare
  3. Taxing the rich: inequality and behavioral responses
  4. Tax evasion, avoidance, and enforcement
  5. Optimal taxation and redistribution
  6. Gender inequality and family leave policies
  7. Social insurance
  8. US health insurance: Medicare and Medicaid
  9. The distribution and taxation of wealth and capital income
  10. Firms and tax policy
  11. Public goods, externalities, and climate change
  12. State and local government and place-based policies
  13. Social security and retirement
Professors Kleven and Zidar will co-teach the course.

 

 

Class Materials

Class materials
Eco 341: Public Economics and Public Policy
Syllabus.pdf
Lecture 1 - overview of public economics and US Fiscal Policy.pdf