Public Finance

Catalog description

ECON 323 , Public Finance (3) (GS) (BA). This course examines contemporary fiscal institutions in the United States, public expenditures, public revenues, and the incidence of major taxes such as the personal income tax, the corporate income tax, and consumption taxes. We also discuss intergovernmental fiscal relations in a federal system of government, and public debt (or deficit financing). We explore the economic rationale for, the current data, and status of the political debate on these topics and others as time permits. Some of the key topics discussed in the lectures include externalities and solutions to market failure associated with them, efficient provision of public goods, and cost-benefit analysis as a nonmarket way to allocate scarce resources. We also devote a substantial amount of time to the market for health care and the role of government in the provision of health care in the United States. In addition to government¿s role in health care, we spend a great deal of time on other major federal government spending programs including social security and a number of spending programs targeted at low income citizens. The later includes the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Here, students are expected to critically analyze the major effects of these programs on poverty as well as incentives to work. On the revenue side of public finances, we focus on both the redistributive and efficiency effects of taxation. We discuss the statutory and economic incidence of consumption taxes, the personal income tax, and the corporate income tax. The last part of the course includes two major topics deficit financing and intergovernmental fiscal relations. In the deficit-financing chapter, we focus on the federal government debt. Students learn about the different measures of public debt, which include gross national debt, intergovernmental debt, and debt held by the public. Under intergovernmental fiscal relations, we discuss the delineation of spending responsibilities between the federal and state governments. We also discuss major funding sources for states and local governments in the United States.