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| Background | |
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| Why Study Public Finance? | |
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| The Four Questions of Public Finance | |
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| Why Study Public Finance? Facts on Government in the U.S. and Around the World | |
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| Why Study Public Finance Now? Policy Debates over Social Security, Health Care, and Education | |
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| Theoretical Tools of Public Finance | |
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| Constrained Utility Maximization | |
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| Putting the Tools to Work: TANF and Labor Supply Among Single Mothers | |
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| Equilibrium and Social Welfare | |
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| Welfare Implications of Benefit Reductions: The TANF Example Continued | |
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| Appendix: The Mathematics of Utility Maximization | |
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| Empirical Tools of Public Finance | |
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| The Important Distinction between Correlation and Causality | |
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| Measuring Causality with Data We'd Like To Have: Randomized Trials | |
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| Estimating Causation with Data We Actually Get: Behavioral Observations | |
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| Appendix: Cross-sectional Regression Analysis Example | |
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| Tools of Budget Analysis | |
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| Federal Budgeting | |
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| Do Debts and Deficits Mean Anything? A Long Run Perspective | |
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| Why Do We Care About the Government's Fiscal Position? | |
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| Externalitites and Public Goods | |
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| Externalities: Problems and Solutions | |
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| Externality Theory | |
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| Private Sector Solutions to Externalities | |
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| Public Sector Solutions to Externalities | |
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| Distinctions between Price and Quantity Approaches to Regulation | |
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| Externalities in Action: Environmental and Health Externalities | |
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| Acid Rain | |
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| Global Warming | |
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| The Economics of Smoking | |
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| The Externalities of Other Addictive Behaviors | |
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| Public Goods: Problems and Solutions | |
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| Optimal Provision of Public Goods | |
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| Private Provision of Public Goods | |
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| Public Provision with Private Provision | |
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| Appendix: Mathematics of Public Goods | |
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| Cost/Benefit Analysis | |
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| Measuring the Benefits of Public Goods | |
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| Measuring the Costs of Public Goods | |
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| Putting it all Together: Cost/Benefit Comparisons | |
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| Implementing Public Goods: Political Economy and Public Choice | |
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| Optimal Financing of Public Goods and its Problems | |
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| Mechanisms for Aggregating Individual Preferences | |
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| Representative Democracy and the Median Voter Theory | |
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| Public Choice Theory: The Foundations of Government Failure | |
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| State and Local Government Expenditures | |
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| Fiscal Federalism in the U.S. and Abroad | |
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| Optimal Fiscal Federalism | |
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| Should We Redistribute Across Communities? Intergovernmental Grants | |
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| Public Goods in Action: Education | |
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| Why Should the Government be Involved in Education? | |
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| How Should the Government be Involved in Education? Crowding Out and Vouchers | |
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| Measuring the Returns to Education | |
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| The Role of the Government in Higher Education | |
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| Social Insurance and Redistribution | |
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| Social Insurance | |
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| What is Insurance and Why do Individuals Value it? | |
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| Why Have Social Insurance? | |
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| Social Insurance vs. Self-Insurance: How Much Consumption Smoothing? | |
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| The Problem with Insurance: Moral Hazard | |
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| Putting it All Together: Optimal Social Insurance | |
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| Appendix: Expected Utility Model and Adverse Selection | |
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| Social Security | |
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| What is Social Security and How Does It Work? | |
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| Consumption Smoothing Benefits of Social Security | |
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| Social Security and Retirement | |
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| Social Security Reform | |
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| Unemployment Insurance, Workers' Compensation and Disability Insurance | |
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| Institutional Features of UI, WC and DI | |
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| Consumption Smoothing Benefits of Social Insurance Programs | |
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| Moral Hazard Effects of Social Insurance Programs | |
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| The Costs and Benefits of Social Insurance to Firms | |
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| Implications for Program Reform | |
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| Appendix: Quasi-experimental Estimates of the Effects of UI | |
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| Health Insurance I: Health Economics and Private Health Insurance | |
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| An Overview of Health Care in the U.S. | |
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| The Efficiency Costs of Health Insurance: Patient-side Moral Hazard | |
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| The Efficiency Costs of Health Insurance: Provider-side Moral Hazard | |
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| Health Insurance II: Medicare and Medicaid | |
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| The Medicaid Program for Low Income Mothers and Children | |
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| What are the Effects of the Medicaid Program | |
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| The Medicare Program | |
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| What are the Effects of the Medicare Program? | |
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| Long Term Care | |
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| Lessons for Health Care Reform in the U.S. | |
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| Income Distribution and Welfare | |
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| Why Redistribute? | |
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| Welfare Policy in the U.S. | |
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| The Costs of Welfare Policy | |
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| Reforming Welfare | |
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| Taxation in Theory and Practice | |
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| Taxation in the U.S. and Around the World | |
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| Types of Taxation in the U.S. and Other Nations | |
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| Basic Structure of the Income Tax in the U.S. | |
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| Measuring the Distributional Properties of Tax Systems | |
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| Defining the Income Tax Base | |
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| Externality/Public Goods Rationales for Deviating from Haig-Simons | |
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| The Appropriate Unit of Taxation | |
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| The Equity Implications of Taxation--Tax Incidence | |
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| The Three Rules of Tax Incidence | |
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| Tax Incidence Extensions | |
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| General Equilibrium Tax Incidence | |
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| The Incidence of Taxation in the U.S. | |
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| Appendix: The Mathematics of Tax Incidence | |
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| Tax Inefficiencies and Their Implications for Optimal Taxation | |
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| Taxation and Economic Efficiency | |
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| Optimal Commodity Taxation | |
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| Optimal Income Taxation | |
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| Tax/Benefit Linkages and the Financing of Social Insurance Programs | |
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| Appendix: The Mathematics of Optimal Taxation | |
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| Taxes on Labor Supply | |
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| Taxation and Labor Supply: Theory | |
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| Taxation and Labor Supply: Evidence | |
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| Tax Incentives and Labor Supply Decisions: The Earned Income Tax Credit | |
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| The Tax Treatment of Child Care Expenditures | |
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| Taxation of Savings | |
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| Taxation of Savings: Theory | |
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| Taxation of Savings: Evidence | |
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| Tax Incentive for Savings | |
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| Taxes on Risk Taking and Wealth | |
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| Taxation and Risk-Taking: Theory and Evidence | |
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| Tax Evasion | |
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| Capital Gains Taxation | |
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| Estate Taxation | |
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| Property Taxation | |
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| Issues of Corporate Taxation | |
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| What are Corporations and Why Do We Tax Them? | |
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| The Structure of the Corporate Tax | |
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| The Efficiency Consequences of the Corporate Tax--Investment | |
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| Treatment of International Corporate Income | |
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| The Efficiency Consequences of the Corporate Tax--Financing | |
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| Tax Reform | |
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| Tax Rates and Tax Revenues | |
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| Tax Simplicity | |
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| Tax Reform Dynamics: The Politics of Tax Reform | |
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| Consumption Taxation and Other Fundamental Tax Reforms | |