Public Economics I

3 Credits

The foundations of public economics, taxation, inequality, and behavioral public economics are reviewed. Major topics include welfare economics, tax incidence, behavioral responses to tax incentives and the efficiency cost of taxation, optimal taxation, income and wealth inequality, optimal tax systems and tax evasion, capital taxation and business income taxes, and taxation and behavioral economics. The course material is aimed to give students an understanding of both the foundations and methods of modern public economics, and important recent advances in our understanding of public economics. This is the first course in the two-part Ph.D. sequence in public economics.