ECON4624 - Empirical Public Economics
Course description
1 Course description
This course discusses the impact and effectiveness of public policies. We discuss modern econometric techniques that allow assessment of how public policy affects individuals, businesses and society. We study a variety of public policies, including taxation, social insurance and public service provision. Students will learn to read, understand and critically assess empirical research in the area of public economics, and be introduced to a variety of empirical methods to evaluate public policy research questions.
Seminars: There will be six seminars. Students will present recent papers in selected topics that we have covered in the lectures. A tentative list of papers are below, subject to change closer to the seminar date. Presenters should prepare slides and the presentation should summarize the paper, focusing on the research question, the empirical methodology, and the findings. They should also try to challenge the paper by questioning the extent to which it answers the proposed research question, and how convincing is the empirical analysis.
Mid-term assignment: Students will be invited to submit a mid-term assignment announced on September 25, with deadline October 9. The assignment will ask students to evaluate one of the papers discussed in the seminars or lectures.
Exam: There will be a three hour written exam at the end of term. The exam will take the following form:
- In the first half of the exam, candidates will be given one or two of the papers discussed in the course (lectures or seminars). The candidates should critically discuss the paper, including a summary of the research question, the empirical methods, the findings, and potentially a comparison to the related literature.
- In the second half of the exam, candidates will be presented with an empirical problem. The candidates should sketch a research strategy that they could use to adress this problem, including an empirical method, data requirements, and potentially how the choice of strategy implies a (re)focusing of the initial empirical question that we can answer.
2 Lectures (Mondays 14.15-16.00, ES Aud 4)
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Teachers: Tarjei Havnes (TH), Thor-Olav Thoresen (TOT), and Gaute Torsvik (GT).
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| Date |
Topic |
Teacher |
Readings |
|
| 1 | Aug 17 |
Introduction and empirical methods |
TH | |
| 2 | Aug 24 |
Tax incidence |
TH | |
| 3 | Aug 31 |
Income Taxation |
GT | |
| 4 | Sep 7 |
Tax salience |
GT | |
| 5 | Sep 14 |
Labor supply and discrete choice |
TOT | |
| 6 | Sep 21 |
Taxation of Wealth and Wealth Transfers |
TOT | |
| ? | Sep 28 |
Teaching-free week |
? |
? |
| 7 | Oct 5 |
Taxes and transfers to the poor |
TH | |
| 8 | Oct 12 |
In-kind Public Assistance |
TH | |
| 9 | Oct 19 |
Early Life Interventions |
TH | |
| 10 | Oct 26 |
Disability Income |
TH | |
| 11 | Nov 2 |
Public health care |
TH |
Card et al. [2008, 2009] |
| 12 | Nov 9 |
Place Based Policies |
TH | |
| 13 | Nov 16 |
Peer effects |
TH | |
3 Seminars (Fridays 10.15-12, ES Aud 6)
| Date |
Topic |
Teacher |
Readings |
|
| 1 | Sep 11 |
Tax incidence |
TH | |
| 2 | Sep 18 |
Income Taxation |
GT | |
| 3 | Sep 25 |
Labor supply |
TOT | |
| 4 | Oct 9 |
The rich and the poor |
TH | |
| 5 | Oct 23 |
Early Life Interventions |
TH | |
| 6 | Nov 6 |
Disability Income |
TH |
Hoynes [2000], Maestas et al. [2013] |
References
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David H. Autor and Mark G. Duggan. The Rise In The Disability Rolls And The Decline In Unemployment. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(1):157?205, February 2003.
Kristoffer Berg and Thor O. Thoresen. On the tax response anatomy of the self-employed. Technical report, Mimeo, 2015. URL https://www.dropbox.com/s/tm39dbxkvs89qfa/BergThoresen2015WP.pdf?dl=0.
Prashant Bharadwaj, Katrine Vellesen L?ken, and Christopher Neilson. Early Life Health Interventions and Academic Achievement. American Economic Review, 103(5):1862?91, August 2013. URL http://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v103y2013i5p1862-91.html.
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Richard Blundell, Antoine Bozio, and Guy Laroque. Labor Supply and the Extensive Margin. American Economic Review, 101(3):482?86, May 2011. URL http://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v101y2011i3p482-86.html.
Erlend E. B?, Elin Halvorsen, and Thor O. Thoresen. Heterogeneity of the carnegie effect. March 2015. URL http://thema.u-cergy.fr/IMG/pdf/26-03-2015_Thor_O-_Thorensen.pdf.
David Card, Carlos Dobkin, and Nicole Maestas. The impact of nearly universal insurance coverage on health care utilization: Evidence from medicare. American Economic Review, 98(5):2242?58, 2008. doi:10.1257/aer.98.5.2242.
David Card, Carlos Dobkin, and Nicole Maestas. Does Medicare Save Lives? The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 124(2):597?636, May 2009.
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Gordon B. Dahl, Katrine V. L?ken, and Magne Mogstad. Peer effects in program participation. American Economic Review, 104(7):2049?74, 2014. doi:10.1257/aer.104.7.2049. URL http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.104.7.2049.
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Amy Finkelstein. E-ZTAX: Tax Salience and Tax Rates. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 124(3):969?1010, August 2009.
Lisa A. Gennetian, Matthew Sciandra, Lisa Sanbonmatsu, Jens Ludwig, Lawrence F. Katz, Greg J. Duncan, Jeffrey R. Kling, and Ronald C. Kessler. The long-term effects of moving to opportunity on youth outcomes. Cityscape, 14:137?68, 2012. URL http://www.huduser.org/portal/periodicals/cityscpe/vol14num2/ch5.html.
Austan Goolsbee. What happens when you tax the rich? evidence from executive compensation. Journal of Political Economy, 108(2):352?378, 2000. URL http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:jpolec:v:108:y:2000:i:2:p:352-378.
P?ter Harasztosi and Attila Lindner. Who pays for the minimum wage? 2014. URL https://www.dropbox.com/s/4wdvae5oo68v8mo/HungaryMW_wpFinal.pdf?dl=0.
Hilary W. Hoynes and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach. Consumption responses to in-kind transfers: Evidence from the introduction of the food stamp program. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 1(4):109?39, 2009. doi:10.1257/app.1.4.109. URL http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/app.1.4.109.
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Hilary Williamson Hoynes. Local Labor Markets And Welfare Spells: Do Demand Conditions Matter? The Review of Economics and Statistics, 82(3):351?368, August 2000. URL http://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/restat/v82y2000i3p351-368.html.
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