【标题】公共经济学：政府政策设计（哈佛大学经济学系）
【语种】英语
【课程简介】
This course analyzes what role the government should play in a market economy. It covers topics such as tax and welfare policy, unemployment insurance, environmental protection, education policy, social security, and the implications of behavioral economics for public policy. The course emphasizes recent empirical and theoretical research on policy issues and will teach students how to conduct such studies.
【课程大纲】
ECONOMICS 1410
Public Economics: Designing Government Policy
Spring 2010
Professors Raj Chetty, Mihir Desai, and Martin Feldstein
Teaching Fellow: Stan Veuger (veuger@fas.harvard.edu)
TF Office Hours: M 1:00 to 2:00 / 4:30 to 5:30 (Littauer, G-23)
Course Description
This course analyzes what role the government plays and should play in a market economy, especially those policies that work through taxes and government spending. It covers topics such
as tax and welfare policy, unemployment insurance, environmental protection, education policy,
social security, and the implications of behavioral economics for public policy. The course emphasizes recent empirical and theoretical research on policy issues and will teach students how to
conduct such studies.
The first half of the course, taught by Professor Feldstein, will cover the basic principles of public economics. These principles will be used to shed light on current questions and debates on
tax policy. Professor Desai will give lectures on corporate tax policy and international taxation.
The second half of the course, taught by Professor Chetty, will discuss recent research papers
that challenge some of the traditional principles and point toward new theories. This part of the
course will focus on teaching students current econometric and theoretical methods used in applied microeconomics.
Prerequisites: Economics 1010a or 1011a or permission of the instructors. Familiarity with multivariate calculus is desirable.
All handouts and announcements will be posted on the course website.
Requirements
1) Lectures – Two lectures per week. MW(F) 2:00 to 3:30 (Sever Hall 103)
2) Sections – M 12:00 to 1:00 (Lowell Lecture Hall B-11) / 3:30 to 4:30 (Sever Hall 208)
3) Readings –
a) Jonathan Gruber, Public Finance and Public Policy (2
nd
or 3
rd
edition), is the optional
but strongly recommended textbook (the lectures follow the Gruber book)
b) Other readings will be distributed on a CD
Grading
1) Exams: Midterm (March 24) 30%
Final (TBA) 50%.
2) Problem Sets: 2 Problem sets 20%.
Group work is permitted, but each student must write up and turn in his/her own solutions.
ECONOMICS 1410: LECTURE DATES
1 Monday, January 25 Feldstein and Chetty - Introduction
2 Wednesday, January 27 Feldstein - Labor Supply and Taxable Income 1
3 Monday, February 1 Feldstein - Labor Supply and Taxable Income 2
5 Wednesday, February 3 Feldstein - Labor Supply and Taxable Income 3
4 Monday, February 8 Feldstein - Redistribution and Fairness 1
5 Wednesday, February 10 Feldstein - Redistribution and Fairness 2
6 Wednesday, February 17 Feldstein - Redistribution and Fairness 3
7 Friday, February 19 Feldstein - Saving
8 Monday, February 22 Feldstein - Risk Taking
9 Wednesday, February 24 Desai - Corporate Taxation [PS 1 assigned]
10 Monday, March 1 Desai - International Taxation
11 Wednesday, March 3 Feldstein - Tax Reform
12 Monday, March 8 Feldstein - Social Insurance [PS 1 due]
13 Wednesday, March 10 Feldstein - Social Security
14 Monday, March 22 Midterm Review
15 March 24 Midterm Exam
16 Monday, March 29 Chetty - Taxation 1
17 Wednesday, March 31 Chetty - Taxation 2
18 Monday, April 5 Chetty - Taxation 3
19 Wednesday, April 7 Chetty - Social Insurance 1
20 Monday, April 12 Chetty - Social Insurance 2
21 Wednesday, April 14 Chetty - Social Insurance 3
22 Friday, April 16 Chetty - Social Insurance 4
23 Monday, April 19 Chetty - Externalities 1 [PS 2 assigned]
24 Wednesday, April 21 Chetty - Externalities 2
25 Monday, April 26 Chetty - Public Goods 1
26 Wednesday, April 28 Chetty - Public Goods 2 [PS 2 due]
ECONOMICS 1410: READINGS
January 25 Introduction to public economics Feldstein and Chetty
Gruber, Chapters 1, 2 and 3
January 27, February 1,3 Taxation and Individual Decisions: Feldstein
Labor Supply and Taxable Income
Gruber, chapter 21
Martin Feldstein, “Effects of Taxes on Economic Behavior”, National Tax Journal,
March 2008
Martin Feldstein, “The Effect of Marginal Tax Rates on Taxable Income: A Panel Study
of the 1986 Tax Reform Act,” Journal of Political Economy, 1995, 551-572
Martin Feldstein, “Tax Avoidance and the Deadweight Loss of the Income Tax,” Review
of Economics and Statistics, November 1999
Martin Feldstein, “How Big Should Government Be?,” National Tax Journal, June 1997,
197-213.
February 8, 10, 17 Distributional Effects of Taxes; Fairness Issues Feldstein
Gruber Chapter 19
Congressional Budget Office, “Historical Effective Federal Tax Rates: 1979 to 2004”,
Washington, D.C: Congressional Budget Office, 2005.
Lawrence Summers, “Some Simple Economics of Mandated Benefits”, American Economic Review, May 1989, 177-183.
Martin Feldstein, "Reducing Poverty, Not Inequality," The Public Interest, No. 137, Fall
1999, pp 33-41. (available at http://www.nber.org/feldstein/pi99.html)
February 19 Taxation and Individual Decisions: Saving Feldstein
Gruber, Chapter 22
Martin Feldstein, “The Effects of Taxes on Efficiency and Growth,” Tax Notes, May 8,
2006. (available at http://www.nber.org/feldstein/taxanalysis.pdf)
James M. Poterba, Steven F. Venti and David A. Wise, “How Retirement Savings Programs Increase Saving,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 10(4), Fall 1996, 91-112.
Eric M. Engen, William G. Gale, and John Karl Scholz, “The Illusory Effects of Savings
Incentives,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 10(4), Fall 1996, 113-138. February 22 Taxation and Risk-Taking Feldstein
Gruber, Chapter 23
Alan J. Auerbach, “Capital Gains Taxation in the United States: Realizations, Revenue
and Rhetoric,” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity 1988:2, 595-631.
James M. Poterba, “Venture Capital and Capital Gains Taxation” in Tax Policy and the
Economy”, Volume 3, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1989.
February 24, March 1 Corporate Taxation and International Taxation Desai
Gruber, Chapter 24
Jane G. Gravelle, “The Corporate Income Tax: Economic Issues and Policy Options,” in
Joel Slemrod, ed., Tax Policy in the Real World, New York, Cambridge University Press,
1999.
James R. Hines, “Taxation and the Activities of Multinational Corporations,” in Alan Auerbach, ed., Fiscal Policy: Lessons from Economic Research, Cambridge, MIT Press,
1998.
James M. Poterba, “Why Didn’t the Tax Reform Act of 1986 Raise Corporate Taxes?” in
Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 6, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1992.
Mihir A. Desai, “The Corporate Profit Base, Tax Sheltering Activity, and the Changing
Nature of Employee Compensation,” NBER Working Paper, 2002.
Mihir A. Desai, Devesh Kapur and John McHale, “Sharing the Spoils: Taxing International Human Capital Flows,” International Tax and Public Finance, September 2004,
663-693.
March 3 Tax Reform Feldstein
Gruber, Chapers 18, 25
“Pro-growth Tax Policy,” Chapter 3 of Economic Report of the President, 2007.
The President’s Advisory Panel on Tax Reform, Simple, Fair, and Pro-Growth: Proposals
to Fix America’s Tax System, November 2005. Washington, DC: The Advisory Panel on
Tax Reform (The whole report is included as background; please read the Executive
Summary) (available at http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/1156.html )
N.G. Mankiw et al., “Optimal Taxation in Theory and Practice,” NBER Working Paper
15071, June 2009.
G. Metcalf, “Designing a Carbon Tax to Reduce U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” NBER Working Paper 14375, 2008.
M. Feldstein, “The Exploding Carbon Tax,” The Weekly Standard, June 22, 2009. (available at
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/624cneah.asp)
March 8 Social Insurance Feldstein
Gruber, Chapter 12
Martin Feldstein, “Seven Principles of Social Insurance”, Challenge, November/ December 1976, 6-11.
Martin Feldstein, “Rethinking Social Insurance,” American Economic Review, March
2005, pp 1-24.
March 8, 10 Social Security Feldstein
Gruber, Chapter 13
Martin Feldstein, “Structural Reform of Social Security,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 2005, pp 33-55.
Jonathan Gruber and David Wise, “Social Security Programs and Retirement Around the
World,” NBER Working Paper 14647, May 2009.
Lawrence Kotlikoff, “Privatization of Social Security: How It Works and Why It Matters,” Tax Policy and the Economy, 1997, pp 1- 32
Martin Feldstein and Jeffrey Liebman, “The Distributional Effects of an Investment
Based Social Security System,” in Martin Feldstein and Jeffrey Liebman, eds., The Distributional Aspects of Social Security and Social Security Reform, Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2002, 263-326.
Martin Feldstein and Andrew Samwick “Potential Paths of Social Security Reform,” in
James Poterba, ed., Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 16, 2002, 181-224.
Report of the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security, 2001 (pages to be
distributed in class)
Martin Feldstein, “Prefunding Medicare,” American Economic Review, May 1999, 222-
227.
Midterm: March 24 (same place and time as class)
March 29, 31, April 5 Taxation: Recent Evidence and Theory Chetty
A) Commodity Taxation
Gruber, Chapters 18, 19 & 20
W. Evans, J. Ringel and D. Stech, “Tobacco Taxes and Public Policy to Discourage
Smoking,” 1999, Tax Policy and the Economy, Vol. 13, Edited by James Poterba, Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research
R. Chetty, A. Looney, and K. Kroft, “Salience and Taxation: Theory and Evidence,”
American Economic Review, 2009.
J. Marion and E. Muehlegger. “Measuring Illegal Activity and the Effects of Regulatory
Innovation: Tax Evasion and the Dyeing of Untaxed Diesel,” Journal of Political Economy 116:4, p.633-666, August 2008.
J. Poterba, “Taxation and Housing: Old Questions, New Answers,” American Economic
Review 82(2): 237-242, May 1992.
B) Income Taxation
Gruber, Chapters 17, 21
Ellwood, D., and L. Summers, “Poverty in America: Is Welfare the Answer or the Problem?,” in Danziger and Weinberg, eds., Fighting Poverty, Chapter 4.
M. Feldstein, “The Effect of Marginal Tax Rates on Taxable Income: A Panel Study of
the 1986 Tax Reform Act,” Journal of Political Economy, 103 (1995), 551-572.
R. Chetty and E. Saez, “Dividend Taxes and Corporate Behavior: Evidence from the
2003 Dividend Tax Cut,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 2005.
R. Chetty, J. Friedman, T. Olsen, L. Pistaferri, “The Effect of Adjustment Costs and Institutional Constraints on Labor Supply Elasticities: Evidence from Denmark,” 2009.
April 7, 12, 14, 16 Social Insurance Chetty
A) Overview
Gruber, Chapter 12
Feldstein, M., “Seven Principles of Social Insurance,” Challenge, Nov. 1976, p. 6-11.
B) Unemployment Insurance Gruber, Chapter 14
R. Chetty, “Moral Hazard vs. Liquidity and Optimal Unemployment Insurance,” Journal
of Political Economy 116(2), 2008, 173-234.
Gruber, Jonathan, “The Consumption Smoothing Benefits of Unemployment Insurance,”
American Economic Review 87 (1997), 192-205.
Meyer, Bruce D., “Unemployment Insurance and Unemployment Spells,” Econometrica,
Volume 58, Issue 4 (Jul., 1990), 757-782.
C) Workers Compensation
Gruber, Chapter 14
Meyer, Bruce D., W. Kip Viscusi and David Durbin. "Workers' Compensation and Injury
Duration: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," American Economic Review 85 (1995),
322-340.
Summers, L., Some Simple Economics of Mandated Benefits,” American Economic Review, May 1989, p. 177-183
D) Disability Insurance
Gruber, Chapter 14
Gruber, Jonathan. “Disability Insurance Benefits and Labor Supply,” Journal of Political
Economy, 108 (2000), 1162-1183.
E) Health Insurance
Gruber, Chapters 15 & 16
April 19, 21 Externalities Chetty
Gruber, Chapters 5 & 6
Manning, W. et al, “The Taxes of Sin: Do Smokers and Drinkers Pay Their Way?,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 1989, 1604-9.
April 26, 28 Public Goods Chetty
Gruber, Chapters 7-10
【来源】哈佛大学经济学系
