Public Finance Economics (ECON)

3430 Public Finance. Three credits. (Same as FIN 3430.) Prerequisites: ECON 2410, 2420; junior standing. Economic foundations of federal tax and expenditure policies. Current issues in federal budget policy. Policy applications illustrating key concepts such as public goods, externalities, income distribution, tax incidence, tax equity, and allocative efficiency. Intergovernmental fiscal relations.

4310 Problems in Government Finance. Three credits. (Same as FIN 4310). Prerequisites: ECON 2410, 2420. Current issues in taxation, theory of income taxation, consumption taxes, property and wealth taxes. Advanced treatment of tax incidence, tax efficiency, income distribution, fiscal federalism, and state and local budget issues.

4400 Business and Government. Three credits. Prerequisites: ECON 2420; junior standing. The economics of public policy toward private business in the U.S. Many dimensions including economic theory, history, philosophical foundations of government, economic statistics, as well as applications of those disciplines to a wide variety of policy issues.

4500 Urban and Regional Economics. Three credits. Prerequisites: ECON 2410, 2420. Economic problems of urban communities, including problems resulting from population shifts to suburbia; urban planning; land utilization; revenue structures; urban renewal; transportation; problems of minority and poverty groups.

5310 Public Finance II. Three credits. (Same as FIN 5310.) Prerequisites: ECON 2410 and 2420. Current issues in taxation, theory of income taxation, consumption taxes, property and wealth taxes. Advanced treatment of tax incidence, tax efficiency, in-come distribution, fiscal federalism, and state and local budget issues. Students are required to complete a term project resulting in a paper available for peer review and a class presentation.

5400 Business and Government. Three credits. Structure, conduct, and performance of American industries; public policies toward business; economic analysis of these policies.

6430 Seminar on Public Finance. Three credits. (Same as FIN 6430.) Examines the role of government in the allocation and distribution of society's resources. Topics include theories of government sector growth, public and quasi-public goods, externalities and agency theory, transitivity and completeness of voting preferences, income redistribution and economic justice, social insurance, health care programs, tax shifting and incidence analysis, efficiency and equity in taxation, and efficiency and redistributive aspects of deficit financing. Topics may involve case studies such as budget formulation, environmental policies, pay-roll taxes, and alternative tax structures.

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