Public Economics

This is a complete listing of all economics courses. Not all courses are offered each year.
Click here for a list of currenly offered courses.

14.420 Environmental Policy and Economics
Prereq: 14.01; 14.30 or permission of instructor
Explores the proper role of government in the regulation of the environment. Explore the tools necessary to estimate the costs and benefits of environmental regulations to evaluate a series of current policy questions, including: Should air and water pollution regulations be tightened or loosened? What are the costs of climate change in the US and abroad? Is there a "race to the bottom" in environmental regulation? Students help design and execute a cutting edge research project that tests whether air pollution causes infant mortality. Graduate students are expected to complete additional assignments.

14.471 Public Economics I
Prereq: 14.04
Theory and evidence on government taxation policy. Topics include tax incidence; optimal tax theory; the effect of taxation on labor supply and savings; corrective taxes for externalities; taxation and corporate behavior; and tax expenditure policy.

14.472 Public Economics II
Prereq: 14.04
Theory and evidence on government expenditure policy. Topics include the theory of public goods; education; state and local public goods; political economy; redistribution and welfare policy; social insurance programs such as social security and unemployment insurance; and health care policy.

14.474 Advanced Topics in Public Economics
Prereq: 14.124
Introduction to current research in one of several sub-fields of public economics. Topics may include the design and evaluation of social insurance programs, the effect of income taxes on firm and individual behavior, the economics of aging, the political economy of taxation and expenditure programs.

14.475 Environmental Economics and Government Responses to Market Failure
Prereq: 14.04
Theory and evidence on regulatory, tax, and other government responses to problems of market failure. Special emphasis on developing and implementing tools to evaluate environmental policies. 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.