Course Detail (Course Description By Faculty)

This course provides graduate-level discussion of topics and methods in public finance. This course has two objectives. The first is to teach current topics and methods in public finance. The second is to advance students’ development as economists by providing training in the production of high-quality research. This training may help students read, contribute to, and draw from recent progress in this literature.

The course covers a wide variety of applied econometric and theoretical approaches. It also discusses applications of a wide variety of datasets and methods that are useful in many settings for public finance and applied economics research.

The course will cover the following topics:

1. Investment tax policy
2. Housing
3. Taxation and inequality
4. Social insurance
5. Consumption, household finance, and public policy

Students will complete a reading response each week (either a slide summary or a response paper) and write a 3-to-5-page referee report on a recent public finance paper. Grades will be determined as follows: 65% for the reading responses and class participation, and 35% for the referee report. No provisional grades.