Teaching

The third part of the graduate public finance sequence: spatial public finance and place-based policy, sorting and fiscal federalism, capital taxation and the distribution of wealth, business taxation and firm location, investment, entrepreneurship, and top earners.

1. 1a. Overview of Public Finance
2. 1b. Applied Economics Tools (supplement: Connecting Theory and Empirics)
3. 2. Spatial Public Finance and the Rosen-Roback Model
4. 3a. Place-Based Policies: Theory
5. 3b. Place-Based Policies: Evidence
6. 4. Sorting and Fiscal Federalism
7. 5a. Capital Taxation: Overview, Facts, and Theory
8. 6a. Business Tax Policy and Firm Location
9. 6b. Business Tax Policy and Firm Location (continued)
10. 6c. Business Tax Policy and Firm Location (continued)

The second quarter of the graduate public finance sequence.

1. 1. Public Finance Overview: Equity, Efficiency, and Fiscal Policy (examples: Skill-Biased Technological Change, Gravity, from Treb Allen)
2. 2. Incidence Example: Cabral, Geruso, and Mahoney (2018) (background: Amy Finkelstein’s Slides on Adverse Selection)
3. 3. Spatial Public Finance and the Rosen-Roback Model
4. 4. Place-Based Policies: Theory (Welfare Model, Equilibrium Model)
5. 5. Place-Based Policies: Evidence
6. 6. Local Public Finance: Tiebout, Sorting, and Fiscal Federalism
7. 7. Capital Taxation: Overview, Facts, and the Harberger Model
8. 8. Business Tax Policy and Firm Location
9. 9. Corporate Tax Incidence
10. 10. Investment and Corporate Financial Policy
11. 11. Innovation Policy
12. 12. Measuring Income and Wealth Inequality

An introduction to microeconomic policy analysis at an advanced level. The course explores several policy areas and focuses on applied economic and empirical methods to show how economists combine theory and data to evaluate policies.

Evaluates fiscal policies that governments will likely consider in the 21st century, from both empirical and theoretical perspectives, in light of technological change, automation, and geographic sorting.

Policy debates such as raising top taxes, expanding the EITC, and reforming health insurance require assessing how policy changes affect economic activity, government budgets, and the distribution of resources. The course evaluates the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, EITC expansion, local economic development policies, and health insurance reforms.

Covers low-income support, taxing the rich, tax evasion and enforcement, optimal taxation, family policy, social insurance, health insurance, wealth and capital taxation, firms and tax policy, public goods and climate change, place-based policies, and Social Security.