Public
Economics, fall 2013
course
web page
Slides: introduction to public goods
Public goods decision
processes
Optimal government size: writeup, spreadsheet
Homework
assignments…
Reflection
1,
due Friday, 9/6: What do you hope to get out of the course? What questions in
public economics do you find interesting?
Reflection
2,
due Monday, 9/16: Reflections on the role of government.
Problem
set 1, due Monday, 9/23: Public goods. click here for the pdf
Problem
set 2, due Monday, 9/30: Excludable public goods;
revelation mechanisms. click here for the pdf
Reflection
3,
due Wednesday, 10/16: brainstorm lit review topics
Problem
set 3, due Wednesday, 10/23: Externalities. click here for the pdf
Reflection
4,
due Wednesday, 10/30: Read the Mankiw et al and
Diamond-Saez papers on optimal taxation, and evaluate
their competing arguments on (a) income tax progressivity, and (b) capital
taxation.
Problem
set 4, due Monday, 11/11: Optimal government size. click here for the pdf
Problem
set 5, due Monday, 12/2: Rawlsian
redistribution. click here for the pdf
Reflection
5,
due Monday, 12/9: Reflection on the 12/4
Obama speech. Assess the solutions he offers; anything to dispute or to
add?
Problem
set 6, due Monday, 12/16: Wrapping up. click here for the pdf
Articles to read
Public goods:
Samuelson, Paul (1954) The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure. Review of Economics and Statistics 36:4,
387-389.
Lindahl taxes:
Lindahl, Erik (1958) Just Taxation -- A Positive Solution.
http://www.econ.ucsb.edu/~tedb/Courses/UCSBpf/readings/lindahl.pdf
Majority rule equilibrium:
Black, Duncan (1948) On the Rationale of Group Decision Making. Journal of Political Economy 56:1,
23-34.
Clarke tax:
Tideman, Nicolaus and
Gordon Tullock (1976) A New and Superior Process for
Making Social Choices. Journal of
Political Economy 84:6, 1145-1159.
Common resources:
Hardin, Garrett (1968) The Tragedy of the Commons. Science 162:3859, 1243-1248.
Coase theorem:
Coase, Ronald (1960) The Problem of Social Cost. Journal of Law and Economics 3:1, 1–44
Tiebout model:
Tiebout, Charles (1956) A Pure Theory of Local
Expenditures. Journal of Political
Economy 64:5, 416–424
Optimal taxation 1: Mirrlees,
James (1971) An Exploration in the Theory of Optimum Income Taxation. Review of
Economic Studies 38:2, 175-208.
Optimal taxation 2:
Mankiw, N. Gregory, Matthew Weinzierl,
and Danny Yagan (2009) Optimal Taxation in Theory and
Practice. Journal of Economic
Perspectives 23:4, 147-74.
Optimal taxation 3:
Diamond, Peter, and Emmanuel Saez (2011) The Case for
a Progressive Tax: From Basic Research to Policy Recommendations. Journal of Economic Perspectives 25:4,
165-90.