ECON 457
Public Economics Research Seminar Spring 2017
Division II
This is not the current course catalog

In this class, students will learn how to read, critically evaluate, and begin to produce empirical research on important and interesting public policy questions. Topics will be selected from across the spectrum of public economics issues and may vary from year to year. Examples of specific topics that may be covered include education, environmental policy, taxation, income inequality, anti-poverty policy, health care policy, the economics of crime and corruption, and the implications of behavioral economics and psychology for public policy (we will typically only cover a subset of these topics). Applications will be drawn mostly from the United States but we will also consider some issues and evidence from other industrialized and developing countries. The course will especially emphasize the critical analysis of empirical evidence on public policy questions.