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Public Economics Undergraduate Course

On this page you will find lecture slides and practice problem sets from an advanced undergraduate course in Public Economics I taught as an Instructor at Columbia in Summer 2017. The course covered standard topics in optimal tax theory, tax administration, social insurance programs, and income inequality, as well as topics related to my own research in consumer responses to transfers, incidence of mandated benefits, and internalities. Enjoy!

      Syllabus (sample)

        Introduction​

  1. Consumption/Leisure Choice

  2. Empirical Tools & Policy Incidence

  3. Efficiency Costs of Government Policies

  4. Externalities & Internalities

  5. Social Insurance Programs (theory)

  6. Social Security

  7. Unemployment Insurance

  8. Health Insurance

  9. Inequality: Measurement & Historical Trends

  10. Welfare Programs in the U.S.

  11. Consumption Response to Transfers

  12. Tax Policy in Practice

  13. Optimal Commodity Taxation

  14. Optimal Income Taxation

  15. Capital Income Taxation

  16. Tax Evasion & Avoidance

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