Econ 151 – Public Economics (1st Sem AY 2016-2017)

Professor: Luzeta Adorna

Textbook
Harvey S. Rosen and Ted Gayer. Public Finance. 9th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010

Supplemental Texbook
Jonathan Gruber. Public Finance and Public Policy, 3rd or 4th Edition. Worth Publishers, 2010/2013 (Ch 5 – 9). The 3rd edition link [Free download] [Note: 4th ed available at the Library]

Other readings are listed in the course outline below. Additional ones might be assigned in the course of the semester.

Lecture Plan

  1. Introduction

Government public finance – Philippine institutions and basic statistics

  1. Positive and normative public economics – analytical tools

Rosen and Gayer, Ch. 2, 3

  1. Public goods and externalities

Rosen and Gayer, Ch. 4, 5

Gruber, Ch 5-7

Samuelson, P.A. (1954). “ A pure theory of public expenditure”. The Review of Economics and Statistics 36(4), pp. 387-389 link [Accessible via UPSE network only] 

Tiebout, C. (1956). “A pure theory of local expenditures”.  Journal of Political Economy 64(5) link [Accessible via Dilnet only] link [Open access]

Stiglitz, J (1998). “Distinguished lecture in economics in government: the private uses of public interests”. JPE 12(2), pp. 3-12  link [Accessible via UPSE network only] 

  1. Public choice – allocation and revelation mechanism

Rosen and Gayer, Ch. 6

Gruber, Ch 9,8

Polling – selected SWS / Pulse Asia published survey results

5. Analysis of public expenditure policy

Cameron, S. and J. Heckman (1993). “The nonequivalence of high school equivalents”. Journal of Labor Economics 11(1), pp.1-46   link [Accessible via UPSE network only] 

Cohen, A. and L. Einav (2003). “The effects of mandatory seat belts laws on driving behavior and traffic fatalities”. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 85(4), pp. 828–843  link [Open access] 

Current issues

  1. Taxation and income distribution – Incidence, efficiency and equity

Rosen and Gayer, Ch. 12, 13, 14

Current news articles, research reports and policy notes on Duterte administration’s initiatives on tax reform

Eissa, N. and J. Leibman (1996). “Labor supply response to the earned income tax credit”. The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 111(2), pp. 605-637  link [Accessible via Dilnet only] 

Current issues

  1. Decentralization

Diokno, B.E. (2012). “Fiscal decentralization after 20 years: What have we learned? Where do we go from here?” Philipine Review of Economics 49(1) pp. 9-26  link [Open access]

Current issues