" In analyzing fiscal issues, conventional public finance approaches focus mainly on taxation and public spending. Policymakers and practitioners rarely explore solutions by examining the fundamental problem: the failure of interested parties to act collectively to internalize the positive externalities generated by public goods. Public finance is merely one of many possible institutional arrangements for assigning the rights and responsibilities to public goods consumption. This system is currently under stress because of the financial crisis. The first part of the class will focus on collective action and its connection with local public finance. The second part will explore alternative institutional arrangements for mediating collective action problems associated with the provision of local public goods. The objective of the seminar is to broaden the discussion of local public finance by incorporating collective action problems into the discourse. This inclusion aims at exploring alternative institutional arrangements for financing local public services in the face of severe economic downturn. Applications of emerging ideas to the provision of public health, education, and natural resource conservation will be discussed."

" Topics include productivity effects of health, private and social returns to education, education quality, education policy and market equilibrium, gender discrimination, public finance, decision making within families, firms and contracts, technology, labor and migration, land, and the markets for credit and savings."

This course explores the theory behind and evidence on regulatory, tax, and other government responses to problems of market failure. Special emphasis is given to developing and implementing tools to evaluate environmental policies. Other topics include cost-benefit analysis, measurement of the benefits of non-market goods and costs of regulations, and the evaluation of the impact of regulations in areas such as financial markets, workplace health and safety, consumer product safety, and other contexts.

Urban governance comprises the various forces, institutions, and movements that guide economic and physical development, the distribution of resources, social interactions, and other aspects of daily life in urban areas. This course examines governance from legal, political, social, and economic perspectives. In addition, we will discuss how these structures constrain collective decision making about particular urban issues (immigration, education…). Assignments will be nightly readings and a short paper relating an urban issue to the frameworks outlined in the class.

Survey of modern macroeconomics at a fairly advanced level. Topics include neoclassical and new growth theory, consumption and saving behavior, investment, and unemployment. Use of the dynamic programming techniques. Assignments include problem sets and written discussions of macroeconomic events. Recommended for students planning to apply to graduate school in economics. Credit not given for both 14.05 and 14.06.

Models of economic growth, old and new. Half-term subject.

Models of economic growth, old and new. Half-term subject. Introduction to the theories of economic growth. Topics will include basic facts of economic growth and long-run economic development; brief overview of optimal control theory and dynamic programming; basic neoclassical growth model under a variety of market structures; human capital and economic growth; endogenous growth models; models with endogenous technology; models of directed technical change; competition, market structure and growth; financial and economic development; international trade and economic growth; institutions and economic development.

Public Finance rests at the intersection of two disciplines: Public Economics and Public Choice. Public Economics deals with issues of social optimality: how much of a good (or bad) does a society desire (or tolerate), and how do we incentivize producers and consumers to attain that amount? Public economics concerns itself with externalities, which are costs that are borne by persons not involved in a market transaction. There are both positive and negative externalities; public economists want to know how we get more of the good and less of the bad. Public choice is the field of economics that looks into the behavior of voters, politicians, and bureaucrats and studies how they choose given different policy institutions. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: Define public finance terms such as 'public good,' 'free-rider,' 'median voter theorem,' 'externality,' 'pigouvian taxes,' and 'Lindahl tax.' Where appropriate, students will be able to include a graphical representation of these concepts in their definition of these terms; Give examples of different types of taxation; Identify the costs to society related to the imposition of a tax; Understand some simple economic models related to public finance, including the Consumer and Producer Surplus models and the Keynesian aggregate demand model; Graphically describe the effects of taxation on labor supply decisions, at both the individual (micro) and national (macro) levels; Explain the political economy aspects of public finance, particularly as they relate to rent seeking and lobbying, as well as the strategies that can be taken to combat rent-seeking behaviors, as well as other more general government failures; Describe the US taxation and budgeting system and list the most important areas of spending; Discuss current controversies related to taxation and government spending. (Economics 305)