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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 | |