Reading List

Public Policy 1700

Economics and Public Policy

Spring 2010

 

0.  January 28: Introduction (statistics review)

 

 

1. February 4: Education Finance

Author

Title

Journal

Paper

Rouse, Cecilia

“Private School Vouchers and Student Achievement: An Evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program”

(Prof. Knight)

Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1998.

pdf

Hoxby, Caroline

Does Competition Among Public Schools Benefit Students and Taxpayers”

(Prof. Knight)

American Economic Review, 2000.

pdf

 

 

2.  February 11: Education Finance

Author

Title

Journal

Paper

Card, David and Abigail Payne

“School Finance Reform, the Distribution of School Spending, and the Distribution of Test Scores”

(Britta Han)

Journal of Public Economics, 2002

pdf

Gordon, Nora

“Do Federal Grants Boost School Spending? Evidence from Title I”

(Scott Cary)

Journal of Public Economics, 2004

pdf

 

 

3. February 18: Welfare and Welfare Reform

Author

Title

Journal

Paper

Blank, Rebecca

background reading: “Policy Watch: The 1996 Welfare Reform Act”

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1997

pdf

Gelbach, Jonah

Migration, the Lifecycle, and State Benefits”

(Richard Henderson)

Journal of Political Economy, 2004.

pdf

Figlio, David and Van Koplin and William Reid

Do States Play Welfare Games?”

(Anton Ziajka)

Journal of Urban Economics, 1999.

pdf

 

 

4. February 25: Welfare and Welfare Reform

Author

Title

Journal

Paper

Grogger, Jeff and Charles Michalopoulos

“Welfare Dynamics Under Time Limits”

(Kelly Wess)

Journal of Political Economy

pdf

Ziliak, James, David Figlio, Elizabeth Davis, and Laura Connolly

“Accounting for the Decline in AFDC Caseloads: Welfare Reform or the Economy?”

(Taylor Russell)

Journal of Human Resources, 2000

pdf

 

 

5. March 4: Medicaid

Author

Title

Journal

Paper

Currie and Gruber

Saving Babies”

(Jonathan Ma)

Journal of Political Economy, 104, 1263-96

pdf

Cutler, David and Jonathan Gruber

“Does Public Insurance Crowd Out Private Insurance?”

(Anita Sekar)

Quarterly Journal of Economics, 111(2), 1996, 391-430.

pdf

 

 

6.  March 11: Medicaid

Author

Title

Journal

Paper

Baicker, Katherine

“Government Decision-making and the Incidence of Federal Mandates”

(James Steinau)

Journal of Public Economics, 2001, 82, 147-194.

pdf

Baicker, Katherine and Douglas Staiger

Fiscal Shenanigans, Targeted Federal Health Care Funds, and Patient Mortality”

(Anisha Sekar)

NBER working paper 10440

pdf

 

 

7.  March 18: Earned Income Tax Credit

Author

Title

Journal

Paper

Eissa, N. and J. Leibman

“Labor Supply Responses to the Earned Income Tax Credit”

(Nick Martel)

Quarterly Journal of Economics, 111(2), 1996, 391-430.

pdf

Meyer, Bruce and Dan Rosenbaum

“Welfare, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Labor Supply of Single Mothers”

(Sanjay Bhatt)

The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2001, 1063-1114.

pdf

 

 

8. March 25: Earned Income Tax Credit

Author

Title

Journal

Paper

Chetty, Raj and Emmanuel Saez

“Teaching the Tax Code: Earnings Responses to an Experiment with EITC Recipients”

(Benjamin Chagnon)

NBER working paper 14836

pdf

Rothstein, Jesse

"The Unintended Consequences of Encouraging Work: Tax Incidence and the EITC"

(Britta Han)

working paper

pdf

 

 

9. April 8: No seminar (independent work on papers)

 

 

10. April 15: State Lotteries

Author

Title

Journal

Paper

Knight, Brian and Nathan Schiff

Spatial Competition and Cross-border Shopping: Evidence from State Lotteries

(Prof. Knight)

NBER working paper 15713

Kearney, Melissa

“State lotteries and consumer behavior”

(Prof. Knight)

Journal of Public Economics, 2004

pdf

 

 

11.  April 22: Student Paper Presentations

 

12.  April 29: Student Paper Presentations