Possible Starting Points for Paper Topics

Econ 441, Analytical Public Finance, UW-Madison

Taxes and Labor Supply

Jonathan Gruber "The Incidence of Mandated Maternity Benefits" The American Economic Review, Vol. 84, No. 3. (Jun., 1994), pp. 622-641.

Thomas MaCurdy Work Disincentive Effects of Taxes: A Reexamination of Some Evidence The American Economic Review, Vol. 82, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Hundred and Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association. (May, 1992), pp. 243-249.

Austan Goolsbee "What Happens When You Tax the Rich? Evidence from Executive Compensation " The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 108, No. 2. (Apr., 2000), pp. 352-378.

Other Tax Effects

James M. Poterba "Taxation and Housing: Old Questions, New Answers" The American Economic Review, Vol. 82, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Hundred and Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association. (May, 1992), pp. 237-242.

Evans, William N. and Matthew C. Farrelly, “The Compensating Behavior of Smokers: Taxes, Tar and Nicotine,” Rand Journal of Economics1, Autumn 1998, 578-95

Gale, William G. and Joel B. Slemrod, “Life and Death Questions About the Estate Tax,” National Tax Journal1, December 2000, 889-912.

Wiliam G Gale;Joel Slemrod "Rhetoric and economics in the estate tax debate " National Tax Journal1; Washington; Sep 2001; ;

Goolsbee, Austan, “In a World Without Borders: The Impact of Taxes on Internet Commerce,” Quarterly Journal of Economics1, May, 2000, 561-76

Poterba, James and Lawrence Summers, "The Economic Effects of Dividend Taxation," in Recent Developments in Corporate Finance, E. Altman and M. Subrahmanyan, (eds.), Dow Jones Irwin, 1985

Savings and Retirement

James M. Poterba; Steven F. Venti; David A. Wise "How Retirement Saving Programs Increase Saving" The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 10, No. 4. (Autumn, 1996), pp. 91-112.

Eric M. Engen; William G. Gale; John Karl Scholz "The Illusory Effects of Saving Incentives on Saving" The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 10, No. 4. (Autumn, 1996), pp. 113-138.

Welfare

Scholz, John Karl, "The Earned Income Tax Credit: Participation, Compliance, and Anti-poverty Effectiveness," National Tax Journal1, March, 1994, 59-81

Rebecca M. Blank "Evaluating Welfare Reform in the United States" NBER Working Paper No. w8983,June 2002.

Currie, Janet and Aaron Yelowitz, “Are Public Housing Projects Good for Kids?” Journal of Public Economics1, January 2000, 99-124

Fraker, Thomas and Robert Moffitt, “The Effect of Food Stamps on Labor Supply: A Bivariate Selection Model,” Journal of Public Economics1, 35, 1988, 25--56.

Currie, Janet and Duncan Thomas, “Does Head Start Make a Difference?” American Economic Review, 85:3, 1995, 341-64

Family Economics

Moffitt, Robert A., 1998, “The Effects of Welfare on Marriage and Fertility,” in Welfare, the Family and Reproductive Behavior, R. Moffitt (ed.), National Academy Press, 50-97

Dickert-Conlin, Stacy. and A. Chandra, “Taxes and the Timing of Births,” Journal of Political Economy, v. 107(1), 161--177.

Dickert-Conlin, Stacy. “Taxes and Transfers: Their Effect on the Decision to End a Marriage.” Journal of Public Economics1, v 73, 1999, 217--240.

Bernheim, B. Douglas, “How Strong are Bequest Motives? Evidence Based on Demand for Life Insurance and Annuities,” Journal of Political Economy, October 1991, 899--927.

Charitable Giving

Andreoni, James, "The Economics of Philanthropy.", Published in the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, N.J. Smelser and P.B. Baltes, eds., London: Elsevier, 2001, 11369-11376.

Andreoni, James, Eleanor Brown, and Isaac Rischall, "Charitable Giving by Married Couples: Who Decides and Why Does it Matter?" Journal of Human Resources, forthcoming, Winter 2003.

Payne, Abigail, “Does the Government Crowd-Out Private Donations? New Evidence from a Sample of Non-Profit Firms,” Journal of Public Economics1, v.69 (3), 1998, 323--345.

John A. List and David Lucking-Reiley, "The Effects of Seed Money and Refunds on Charitable Giving: Experimental Evidence from a University Capital Campaign" Journal of Political Economy, Volume 110, Number 1, February 2002

Environmental Taxes / Regulation

I. W. H. Parry, "Comparing the efficiency of alternative policies for reducing traffic congestion " Journal of Public Economics, Sept 2002, pages 333-362.

Fullerton, Don and with T. Kinnaman "Household Responses to Pricing Garbage by the Bag," American Economic Review (September, 1996).

Eli Berman and Linda T. M. Bui, "Environmental Regulation and Productivity: Evidence from Oil Refineries" REview of Economics and Statistics, August 2001, pages 498-510.

Fullerton, Don and W. Wu, "Policies for Green Design," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management>1, (September, 1998).

Levinson, Arik, "NIMBY Taxes Matter: The Case of State Hazardous Waste Disposal Taxes," Journal of Public Economics>1, vol. 74, no. 1, October 1999, pp. 31-51.

Local

Oates, Wallace E., and Robert M. Schwab, “Economic Competition Among Jurisdictions: Efficiency Enhancing or Distortion Inducing?” Journal of Public Economics1, v 25, 1988, 333-- 354.

Crime

Donohue, John J. and Steven D. Levitt, “The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime.” Quarterly Journal of Economics1, May 2001, 379-420.

Duggin, Mark, "More Guns, More Crime," Journal of Political Economy,, Volume 109, Number 5, October 2001

Levitt, Steven D., "Using Electoral Cycles in Police Hiring to Estimate the Effect of Police on Crime" American Economic Review, vol. 87, no. 3, June 1997, pp. 270-90

Donohue, John J, III; Levitt, Steven D, "The Impact of Race on Policing and Arrests", Journal of Law and Economics, vol. 44, no. 2, Part 1 Oct. 2001, pp. 367-94

Cullen, Julie Berry; Levitt, Steven D., "Crime, Urban Flight, and the Consequences for Cities" Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 81, no. 2, May 1999, pp. 159-69

Levitt, Steven D., "Juvenile Crime and Punishment" Journal of Political Economy, vol. 106, no. 6, December 1998, pp. 1156-85

Levitt, Steven D., "The Effect of Prison Population Size on Crime Rates: Evidence from Prison Overcrowding Litigation" Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 111, no. 2, May 1996, pp. 319-51

Health

Duggan, Mark G, "Hospital Ownership and Public Medical Spending," Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 115, no. 4, November 2000, pp. 1343-73

Daron Acemoglu and Joshua D. Angrist, "Consequences of Employment Protection? The Case of the Americans with Disabilities Act", Journal of Political Economy, Volume 109, Number 5, October 2001

Misc

Scott Susin, "Rent vouchers and the price of low-income housing ". Journal of Public Economics, Jan 2002, pages 109-152.

Steven D. Levitt and Jack Porter, "How Dangerous Are Drinking Drivers?" Journal of Political Economy, Volume 109, Number 6, December 2001

Levitt, Steven D., "Policy Watch: Congressional Campaign Finance Reform", Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 9, no. 1, Winter 1995, pp. 183-93

John J. Donohue, James J. Heckman and Petra Todd, "The Schooling of Southern Blacks: The Roles of Legal Activism and Private Philanthropy, 1910-1960", Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb, 2002.

Caroline M. Hoxby, "All School Finance Equalizations Are not Created Equal", Quarterly Journal of Economics, Nov, 2001, pp. 1189 - 1231.

Most of these references were taken from the syllabi of the graduate public economics sequence but represent only a small sample. Feel free to have a look at them yourself.
Andreoni's 741 Syllabus
Scholz's 741 Syllabus
1. Note about on-line access. Links have been provided to articles available on JSTOR. Many articles not available on JSTOR (either because JSTOR does carry the journal or the article is too recent) may still be accessed through the following links
  • Quarterly Journal of Economics
  • Journal of Political Economy
  • Review of Economics and Statistics
  • Journal of Public Economics
  • National Tax Journal (Last Two Years Excluded)
    You may also want to check out the List of Electronic Journals available through the UW-Madison Library "Journals, Magazines and Newspapers" section of their website. Of course, it all else fails, one can still physically go to the library.