Public Economics

Public Economics
Evaluation of the role of government from an economic perspective. Typical topics include taxation, externalities, public goods, corruption, public choice, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, education, income redistribution, and crime.
ECON
475
 Hours3.0 Credit, 3.0 Lecture, 0.0 Lab
 PrerequisitesECON 378 & ECON 380
 TaughtContact Department
 ProgramsContaining ECON 475
Course Outcomes

Econ 475 students will be able to

  1. Discuss the revenue, expenditure, and debt patterns of the U.S federal government.
  2. Analyze how modifying the neoclassical assumptions learned in 380 can affect the welfare implications of markets. In particular, how the welfare implications are affected by

Externalities and Public Goods

Fixed Costs or Increasing Returns

Poorly Enforced Property Rights

Information Problems

Hyperbolic Discounting or Loss Aversion

  1. Demonstrate an understanding of the function and incentive effects of the major redistribution programs in the United States.
  2. Discuss the efficiency and distributional effects of taxation and the theory of optimal taxation for both income and commodity taxes.
  3. Read papers in the public economics literature and

Provide written and oral critiques of the papers

Apply modern tools of econometric analysis in discussing the papers