THE
Department of Economics
Fall 2005
James
Andreoni
http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~andreoni/Econ741/home.html
TEXTS:
The following books are recommended:
Laffont, J.-J., Foundations of Public Economics, MIT Press, 1988.
Mueller, D., Public
Choice III,
PAPER:
Each student will be required to prepare
a short 7 page paper that summarizes the results in a single area of the
literature discussed in the class. The
papers not *ed or **ed will be a guide to what else should be included in the
summary, although additional papers will likely be needed to supplement the
discussion. Note: 7 pages is an absolute maximum number of pages. Use
single-spacing and 12 point fonts with no less than 1 inch margins. I also strongly encourage the use of
STUDENT PRESENTATIONS:
During the course of the semester, all students will be expected to make one presentation each in class of course material, which I expect will be related to their papers in topic. This can be presentation of a particular paper, or a synthesis of several similar papers on a particular topic. Presentations should be about 45-60 minutes in length. In addition, students will also submit one exam question on their topic to be considered for the final exam.
EXAM:
The course will have a final exam. The date and format of the exam will be determined by the class through an appropriate social choice mechanism.
FIELD PAPER:
There is a separate requirement of
a field paper for all Public Econ majors, due
Econ 741: Course Outline
Fall 2004
James Andreoni
0. Introduction
Laffont, Introduction
Mueller, Public Choice, Chapter 10
Samuelson, Paul A., “Social Indifference Curves,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1956, 1--22.
Harsanyi, John C. “Cardinal Welfare Individualistic Ethics, and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility,” Journal of Political Economy, 1955, 309--321.
1. Public Goods
1.1 Neoclassical Theory
* Samuelson, Paul A., “The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure,” Review of Economics and Statistics, Nov. 1954, 387-389.
Samuelson, Paul A., “Diagrammatic Exposition of a Theory of Public Expenditures,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 1955, 350--356.
** Samuelson, Paul A., “Pure Theory of Public Expenditure and Taxation,” in Margolis and Guitton, eds., Public Economics, Macmillian, 1969, 492--517.
* Lindahl, E., “Just Taxation --- A Positive Solution,” in Musgrave and Peacock, ed., Classics in the Theory of Public Finance, Macmillian, 1958, 168--176.
Foley,
Laffont, Chapter 2.1 -- 2.4, 2.7
Arrow, Kenneth, “The Organization
of Market Activity: Issues Pertinent to
the Choice of Market versus Non-market Allocations,” in Haveman
and Margolis, eds., Public Expenditure and Policy Analysis,
1.2 Privately Provided Public Goods
Andreoni, James, “Philanthropy.” Handbook of Giving, Reciprocity and Altruism, L.-A. Gerard-Varet, S-C. Kolm and J. Mercier Ythier, eds., in the series Handbooks in Economics, K. Arrow and M.D. Intriligator, General Editors.
Arrow, Kenneth, “Optimal and Voluntary Income Distribution,” in Steven Rosenfielde, ed., Economic Welfare and the Economies of Soviet Socialism: Essays in Honor Abram Bergson, 1981.
Becker, G., “A Theory of Social Interactions,” Journal of Political Economy, 1974.
Warr, Peter, “Pareto Optimal Redistribution and Private Charity,” Journal of Public Economics, 1982.
** Bergstrom, Theodore, Laurence Blume and Hal Varian, “On the Private Provision of Public Goods,” Journal of Public Economics, 1986, v 29, 25--49.
Bernheim, B. D., “On the Voluntary and Involuntary Provision of Public Goods,” American Economic Review, 1986.
** Andreoni, James, “Privately Provided Public Goods in a Large Economy: The Limits of Altruism,” Journal of Public Economics, February 1988, v 35, 57--73.
* Andreoni, James, “Giving with Impure Altruism: Applications to Charity and Ricardian Equivalence,” Journal of Political Economy, December, 1989, 1447--1458.
Andreoni, James, “Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving,” Economic Journal, 100, 1990.
* Andreoni, James and Ted Bergstrom, “Do Government Subsidies Increase the Private Supply of Public Goods?,” Public Choice, v. 88, 1996, 295-308.
* Varian, Hal R., “Sequential Provision of Public Goods,” Journal of Public Economics, 1994, 53, 165--86.
* Bliss, C. and Barry Nalebuff, “Dragon Slaying and Ballroom Dancing: The Private Supply of a Public Good,” Journal of Public Economics, 25,1984,1-12.
* Bilodeau, Marc and Al Slivinski, “Toilet Cleaning and Department Chairing: Volunteering a Public Service,” Journal of Public Economics, February 1996, 299--308.
Bilodeau, Marc, J.
Childs and
1.3 Fund-raising
Bilodeau, Marc and Al Slivinski, “Rival Charities,” Journal of Public Economics, March 1997, 449—467.
Harbaugh, William, “What Do Donations Buy?,” Journal of Public Economics, 67, 1998, 269--84.
* Andreoni, J. “Toward a Theory of Charitable Fund-Raising.” Journal of Political Economy, 106, no. 6, 1998, 1186--1213.
Vesterlund, Lise D., “The Information Value of Sequential Fundraising,” Journal of Public Economics, March 2003, 87(3-4), 627-658.
Romano, Richard and Huseyim Yildirim, “Why Charities Announce Donations: A Positive Perspective.” Journal of Public Economics, v 81, 2001, 423-448.
* Andreoni, J. “Leadership Giving in Charitable Fund-raising,” Journal of Public Economic Theory, 2005.
1.4 Experimental Studies
Ledyard, John O., “Public
Goods: A Survey of Experimental
Research” in J.H. Kagel and A.E. Roth, eds.,
Handbook of Experimental Economics,
Marwell, G. and Ruth Ames, “Economists Free Ride --- Does Anyone Else?" Journal of Public Economics, 1981, 295--310.
Isaac, Mark and James Walker, “Group Size Hypothesis of Public Goods Provision: Experimental Evidence,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1988.
Andreoni, James, “Why Free Ride? Strategies and Learning in Public Goods Experiments,” Journal of Public Economics, December 1988.
Andreoni, James, “An Experimental Test of the Public Goods Crowding Out Hypothesis,” American Economic Review, December 1993.
** Andreoni, James, “Cooperation in Public Goods Experiments: Kindness or Confusion?,” American Economic Review, September 1995, 85, 891--904.
* Palfrey, Thomas R. and Jeffrey E. Prisbey, “Anomalous Behavior in Public Goods Experiments: How Much and Why?,” American Economic Review, 1997, v. 87(5), 829--846.
* Goeree, Jacob K., Charles A. Holt, and Susan K. Laury, “Private Costs and Public Benefits: Unraveling the Effects of Altruism and Noisy Behavior,” Journal of Public Economics, February 2002, 83(2), 255-276.
Palfrey, Thomas R. and Jeffrey E. Prisbrey, “Altruism, Reputation and Noise in Linear Public Goods Experiments,” Journal of Public Economics, v. 61, 1997,March 1996, 409--427.
Andreoni, James and John H. Miller, “Giving According to GARP: An Experimental Test of the Consistency of Preferences for Altruism.” Econometric, 2002.
Andreoni, James, and Lise Vesterlund, “Which is the Fair Sex? Gender Differences in Altruism,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February, 2001.
* Andreoni, James and Ragan Petrie, “"Public Goods Experiments Without Confidentiality: A Glimpse Into Fund-Raising." July 2002. Forthcoming, Journal of Public Economics, 2003.
1.5 Econometric Studies
** Randolph, William, “Dynamic Income, Progressive Taxes, and the Timing of Charitable Contributions,'' Journal of Political Economy, August 1995, 103, 709--738.
* Auten, Gerald E., Holger Sieg, and Charlet T. Clotfelter, “Charitable Giving, Income, and Taxes: Analysis of Panel Data,” American Economic Review, March 2002, 92(1), 371-382
** Payne, A. Abigail, , “Does the Government Crowd-Out Private Donations? New Evidence from a Sample of Non-Profit Firms,” Journal of Public Economics, v.69 (3), 1998, 323--345.
* Ribar, David C. and Mark O. Wilhelm, “Altruistic and Joy-of-Giving Motivations in Charitable Behavior,” Journal of Political Economy, April 2002, 110(2), 425-458.
* Andreoni, J. and A. Abigail Payne, “Do Government Grants to Private Charities Crowd Out Giving or Fundraising?” American Economic Review, June 2003, 93(3), 792-812.
Kingma, Bruce, “An Accurate Measure of the Crowd-out Effect, Income Effect, and Price Effect for Charitable Contributions,” Journal of Political Economy, October 1989.
Straub, John “Fundraising and Crowd-out of Charitable Contributions: New Evidence from Contributions to Public Radio,” Texas A&M Working Paper, April 2003.
* Gruber, J. “Pay or Pray? The Impact of Charitable Subsidies on Religious Attendance.” Journal of Public Economics, December 2004, 88, 2635-2656.
2. Externalities
Laffont, Chapter 1.
Coase, R., “The Problem of Social Cost,” Journal of Law and Economics, 1960, 1--44.
Dixit, Avinash and Mancur Olson, “Does Voluntary Participation Undermine the Coase Theorem?” Journal of Public Economics, June 2000, 309-336.
** Ebrill, L. and Steve Slutsky, “Time, Congestion and Public Goods,” Journal of Public Economics, 1982, 307--335.
* Sandholm, William, “Evolutionary Implementation and Congestion Pricing.” Review of Economic Studies 69 (2002), 667-689.
Harden, Garret, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Science, 1968, December.
Bovenberg, A. Lans, and Ruud A. de Mooij, “Environmental Levies and Distonrtionary Taxation,” American Economic Review, September 1994, 1085--1089.
**
Metcalf, Gilbert E., “Environmental Levies and Distortionary Taxation,” Journal of Public Economics, February 2003, 87(2), 313-322.
* Andreoni, James, and Arik Levinson, “The Simple Analytics of the Envrironmental Kuznets Curve,” Journal of Public Economics, v 80, 2001, 269-286.
Cremer, Helmut and Firouz Gahvari, “Second-Best Taxation of Emissions and Polluting Goods,” Journal of Public Economics, 80, 2001, 169-198.
3. Collective Choice and Majority Voting
Laffont, Chapters 2.5, 2.6, 4, “Collective Choice Theory.”
* Mueller, Public Choice, Chapters 4, 5 and 6.
Persson, Torston and Guido Tabellini, “Political Economy and Public Finance,” in Auerbach and Feldstein, eds., Handbook of Public Economics, 2001.
Caplin, A. and B. Nalebuff, “The 64% Majority Rule,” Econometrica, July 1988.
Caplin, A. and B. Nalebuff “Aggregation and Social Choice: A Mean Voter Theorem,” Econometrica, January 1991.
Levin, Jonathan and Barry Nalebuff, “An Introduction to Vote-Counting Schemes,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1995, 3--26.
Young, Peyton, “Optimal Voting Rules,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1995, 51--64.
Osbourne, Martin and Al Slivinski, “A Model of Political Competition with Citizen-Candidates,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1996, 65--96.
** Besley, Timothy and Stephen Coate, “An Economic Model of Representative Democracy,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 1997, 85--114.
Lizzeri, Alessandro and Nicola Persico, “The Provision of Public Goods Under Alternative Electoral Incentives,” American Economic Review, March 2001, 91(1), 225-240.
* Timothy J. Feddersen, “Rational Choice Theory and the Paradox of not Voting”, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2004, Volume 18, No.1, 99-112.
Daniel Diermeier, Michael Keane, and Antonio Merlo, “A Political Economy Model of Congressional Careers.” American Economic Review, March 2005, 347-373.
Antonio Rangel, “How to Protect Future Generations Using Tax-Base Restrctions,” American Economic Review, March 2005, 314-346.
Elisabeth R. Gerber and Jeffrey B. Lewis, “Beyond the Median: Voter Preferences, District Heterogeneity, and Political Representation.” Journal of Political Economy, December 2004. 112, 1364-1383.
4. Preference Revelation and Implementation
* Varian, Hal R., Microeconomic Analysis, Third Edition, Sections 23.8 and 23.9 on the Groves/Clarke tax.
Mueller, Public Choice II, Chapter 8.
** Laffont, Chapter 5, “Incomplete Information in Public Economics.”
Fudenberg, Drew and Jean Tirole, Game Theory, MIT Press, 1991, Chapter 7, “Baysian Games and Mechanism Design.”
Chen, Yan and Fang-Fang Tang, “Learning and Incentive-Compatible Mechanisms for Public Goods Provision: An Experimental Study,” Journal of Political Economy, June 1998, v. 106 (3), 633--662.
Bagnoli, Mark and Bart Lipman, “Provision of Public Goods: Fully Implementing the Core through Private Contributions,” Review of Economic Studies, Oct 1989.
Abreu, Dilip and Arunana Sen, “Virtual Implementation in Nash Equilibrium,” Econometrica, July 1991, 997--1072.
Sefton, M. and A. Yavas, “Abreu-Matsushima Mechanisms: Experimental Evidence,” Games and Economic Behavior, v. 16(2), 280--302.
Chung, Kim-Sau and Jeffrey C. Ely, “Implementation with Near-Complete Information,” Econometrica, May 2003, 71(3), 857-872.
* Varian, Hal R., “A Solution to the Problem of Externalities and Public Goods When Agents are Well Informed,” American Economic Review, December 1994, 84, 1278-1293.
Andreoni, James and Hal R. Varian, “Preplay Contracting in Prisoner’s Dilemma,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, September/October, 1999.
** Admati, Anat and Motty Perry, “Joint Projects Without Commitment,” Review of Economic Studies, v. 58, 1991, 259--76.
** Marx, Leslie and Steve Matthews, “Dynamic Voluntary Contributions to a Public Project,” Review of Economic Studies, v 62(2), 2000, 327-58.
Ledyard, John O. and Thomas R. Palfrey, “The Approximation of Efficient Public Good Mechanisms by Simple Voting Schemes,” Journal of Public Economics, February 2002, 153-173.
Yan Chen, “An experimental study of serial and average cost pricing mechanisms”, Journal of Public Economics, Vol 87, Sept 2003, 2305-2336
Gillmand, Sean and Thomas R. Palfrey, “An Experimental Comparison of Collective Choice Procedures for Excludable Public Goods” Journal of Public Economics, 2005.
5. Local Public Finance
5.1 Theoretical Issues: The Tiebout Hypothesis
* Tiebout, C., “A Pure Theory of Local Public Expenditures,” Journal of Political Economy, 1956, 416--424.
Scotchmer, Suzanne, “Local Public Goods and Clubs.” Handbook of Public Economics, Ch 29, Vaolume 4, A.J. Auerbach and M. Feldstein, eds., 2002 Elsivier
Stiglitz,
Joseph E., “The Theory of Local Public Goods Twenty-five Years After Tiebout: A
Perspective,” in G.R. Zodrow, ed., Local Provision of Public
Services: The Tiebout Hypothesis After 25 Years,
Academic Press (
Bewely, T., “A Critique of Tiebout's Theory of Local Public Expenditures,” Econometrica, 1982, 713--737.
Scotchmer,
Suzanne, “Public Goods and the Invisible Hand”, in Quigley and Smolensky, eds., Modern Public Finance, Harvard Univ:
Ellickson, B., B. Grodak, S. Schotchmer, and W. Zame, “Clubs and the Market.” Econometrica, 1999, v67, 185-1218.
* Epple, Dennis and Allen Zelenitz, “The Implications of Competition Among Jurisdictions: Does Tiebout Need Politics?” Journal of Political Economy, 1981, 1197--121.
Oates, Wallace E., and Robert M. Schwab, “Economic Competition Among Jurisdictions: Efficiency Enhancing or Distortion Inducing?” Journal of Public Economics, v 25, 1988, 333--354.
Levinson, Arik, “A Note on Environmental Federalism: Interpreting Some Contradictory Results,” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 33 (3), 1997.
Nechyba, Tom, “Local Property and State Income Taxes: The Role of Interjurisdictional Competition and Collusion,” Journal of Political Economy, v.105, 1997, 351--384.
* Timothy Besley and Stephen Coate, “Centralized versus decentralized provision of local public goods: a political economy approach”, Journal of Public Economics, Vol 87, Dec 2003, No. 12, 2611-2638
Conley, John P. and Hideo Konishi, “Migration-Proof Tiebout Equilibrium: Existance and Asymptotic Efficiency,” Journal of Public Economics, 86, 2002, 243-262.
5.2 Empirical Issues: Tiebout Sorting, Federalism
Bergstrom, T. C. and R. Goodman, “Private Demands for Public Goods,” American Economic Review, 1973.
Bergstrom, T. C., D. Rubinfeld, and P. Shapiro, “Micro-based Estimates of Demand Functions for Local Public School Expenditures,” Econometrica, Vol. 50, September 1982, 1185--1205.
Bergstrom, Roberts, Rubinfeld, and Shapiro, “A Test for Efficiency in the Supply of Public Education,” Journal of Public Economics, 1988, Vol. 35, 289--307.
Epple, Dennis, and Holger Sieg, “Estimating Equilibrium Models of Local Jurisdictions,” Journal of Political Economy, 1999, 107(4), 645-681.
* Epple, Dennis and Holger Sieg, “Interjurisdictional Sorting and Majority Rule: An Empirical Analysis,” Econometrica, 69, 2001,1437-66.
* Paul W. Rhode and Koleman S. Strumpf, “Assessing the Importance of Tiebout Sorting: Local Heterogeneity from 1850 to 1990”, The American Economic Review, Dec 2003, Vol 93, No. 5, 1648-1677
Levinson, Arik, “NIMBY Taxes Matter: The Case of Hazardous Waste Disposal Taxes,” Journal of Public Economics, 1999, 74.
** Knight, Brian, “Endogenous Federal Grants and Crowd-out of State Government Spending: Theory and Evidence from the Federal Highway Aid Program,” American Economic Review, March 2002, 92(1), 71-92.
Case, Anne C., Rosen, Harvey S., and Hines, James R., Jr., “Budget Spillovers and Fiscal Policy Interdependence: Evidence from the States”, Journal of Public Economics, vol 52(3), October 1993, 285-307.
5.2 Empirical Issues: Education
Hoxby, Caroline M. "The Productivity of Schools and Other Local Public Goods Producers," Journal of Pubic Economics, October 1999, 1-31.
* Hoxby, Caroline M. “Does Competition Among Schools Benefit Students or Taxpayers?” American Economic Review, December 2000, 1209-1238.
Lazear, Edward, “Educational Production.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 116, 2001, 777-804.
* Nechyba, Thomas J., “Mobility, Targeting and Private School Vouchers,” American Economic Review, March 2000, 130-146.
Barrow, Lisa, “School Choice Through Relocation:
Evidence from the
Eric Brunner and Jon Sonstelie, “School finance reform and voluntary fiscal federalism”, Journal of Public Economics, Vol 87, Sept 2003, 2157-2186
Eric A. Hanushek, John F. Kain and Steven G. Rivkin, “Disruption versus Tiebout improvement: the costs and benefits of switching schools”, Journal of Public Economics, Vol 88, August 2004, 1721-1746
* Lisa Barrow and Cecilia Elena Rouse, “Using market valuation to assess public school spending”, Journal of Public Economics, Vol 88, August 2004, 1747-1770.
* Julie B. Cullen, B.A. Jacob and Steven D. Levitt, “The Impact of School Choice on Student Outcomes: An Analysis of the Chicago Public Schools,” Journal of Public Economics, June 2005, 89, 729-760.
6. Economics of the Family
Becker,
* Bergstrom, T.C., “A Fresh Look at the Rotten Kid Theorem --- And Other Household Mysteries,” Journal of Political Economy, 1989.
Lundberg, Shelly and Robert A. Pollack, “Separate Spheres Bargaining and the Marriage Market,” Journal of Political Economy, v.101 (6), 988--1010.
** Lundberg, Shelly and Robert A. Pollack, “Bargaining and Distribution in Marriage,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 10(4), Fall 1996, pages 139-58.
* Lundberg,
Shelly, Robert A. Pollack and T.J. Wales, “Do Husbands and Wives Pool Their
Resources? Evidence from
Chiaporri, P.-A. and Martin Browning, “Efficient Intra-Household Allocation : A General Characterization and Empirical Tests" Econometrica, 66 6, 1998, 1241-78
** Chiaporri, P.-A, F. Bourguignon, M. Browning , and V. Lechene "Incomes and Outcomes : a Structural Model of Intra-Household Allocation", Journal of Political Economy, 1994, 1067-97.
Andreoni, James, Eleanor Brown, and Isaac Rischall, “Charitable Giving by Married Couples: Who Decides and Why Does it Matter?” Journal of Human Resources, 38(1), Winter 2003, 111-133.
Bergstrom, T.C. and M. Bagnoli, “Courtship as a Waiting Game,” Journal of Political Economy, February 1993.
Bergstrom, T. C., “On the Evolution of Altruistic Ethical Rules for Siblings,” American Economic Review, March 1995, 85, 58--81.
Bergstrom, T.C., “Economics in a Family Way,” Journal of Economic Literature, December 1996, 1903--1934.
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 Economics, v 73, 1999, 217--240.
Raquel Fernandez, Nezih Guner, and John Knowles, “ Love and Money: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of Household Sorting and Inequality,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, February 2005, 273-344.
7.
Public Intervention in Markets for Private Goods
7.1 Transfers In-Kind
Bruce, Neil and Michael Waldman, “The Rotten Kid Theorem Meets the Samaritan's Dilemma,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1990, 155-165.
** Bruce, Neil and Michael Waldman, “Transfers in Kind, Why they can be Efficient and Non-Paternalistic,” American Economic Review, December 1991, 1345--1351.
Coate, Stephen, Stephen Johnson and Richard Zeckhauser, “Pecuniary Redistribution trough In-kind Programs,” Journal of Public Economics, September 1994, 19--41.
* Coate, Stephen, “Altruism, Samaratin's Dilemma and Government Transfer Policy,” American Economic Review, March 1995, 46--57.
Besley, Tim and Stephen Coate, “The Design of Income Maintenance Programmes,” Review of Economic Studies, 1995, 62, 187--221.
.
Peltzman, Sam, “The Effects of Subsidies In-kind on Private Expenditures: The Case of Higher Education,” Journal of Political Economy, 1973, 1--27.
7.2 Mandated
Benefits
Summers, Larry, “Some Simple Economics of Mandated Benefits,” American Economic Review, May 1989, 177-183.
Gruber, Jonathan, “State-Mandated Benefits and Employer-Provided Health Insurance,” Journal of Public Economics, v. 55(3), 433--64.
Gruber, Jonathan, “The Incidence of Mandated Maternity Benefits,” American Economic Review, v. 84(3), 1994, 622-41.
7.3
Public Provision of Private Goods
Besley, T. and Stephen Coate, “Public Provision of Private Goods and the Redistribution of Income,” American Economic Review, v. 81 (4), September 1991, 979--984.
** Epple, D. and R.E. Romano, “Competition Between Private and Public Schools, Vouchers, and Peer-Group Effects,” American Economic Review, v.88 (1), March 1998, 33--62.
Epple, D. and R.E. Romano, “Ends Against the Middle: Determining Public Service Provision When There Are Private Alternatives,” Journal of Public Economics, v.62(3), November 1996, 297--325.
** Epple, D. and R.E. Romano, “Public Provision of Private Goods,” Journal of Political Economy, v.104 (1), February 1996, 57--84.
* Dennis Epple, David Figlio and Richard Romano, “Competition between private and publics schools: testing stratification and pricing predictions”, Journal of Public Economics, Vol 88, July 2004, 1215-1246
7.4
Preferences for Redistribution
**
Piketty, T. (1995), “Social Mobility and
Redistributive Politics”, Quarterly Journal of
Economics, 110(3), p. 551-584.
Benabou,
R. and E. A. Ok (2001), “Social Mobility and the Demand for Income Redistribution”,
Quarterly
Journal of Economics.
Luttmer,
E. F. (2001), “Group Loyalty and the Taste for Redistribution”, Journal
of Political Economy, 109 (3), p. 500-528.
Fong,
C. (2001), “Social Preferences, Self-Interest, and the Demand for
Redistribution”, Journal of Public
Economics, 82 (2).
Louise Keely and Chih Ming Tan,
“Understanding Preferences for Income Redistribution” working paper,
8. The Theory of the Second Best
8.1 Optimal Commodity Taxation
** Laffont, Chapter 7.
Atkinson and Stiglitz, Lectures on Public Economics, Ch. 12, 13, 14.
Baumol and Bradford, “Optimal Departures From Marginal Cost Pricing,” American Economic Review, 1970.
Samuelson, P.A., “Optimal Taxation,” U.S. Treasury 1951, reprinted, Journal of Public Economics, 1986, 137--143.
** Sandmo, Agnar, “Optimal Taxation --- An Introduction to the Literature,” Journal of Public Economics, 1976, 37--54.
Diamond, P. A. and D. L. McFadden, “Some Uses of the Expenditure Function in Public Finance,” Journal of Public Economics, v 3, 1974, 3--21.
Diamond, P. A., and J. A. Mirrlees, “Optimal Taxation and Public Production, I & II,” American Economic Review, 1971, 8--27 and 261--278.
Deaton, A., “The Distance Function in Consumer Behavior with Applications to Index Numbers and Optimal Taxation,” Review of Economic Studies, 1979.
* Goulder, Lawrence H. and Roberton C. Williams III. “The Substantial Bias from Ignoring General Equilibrium Effects in Estimating Excess Burden, and a Practical Solution.” Journal of Political Economy, August 2003, 111(4), 898-927
8.2 Optimal Income Taxation
Mirrlees, J. A., “An Exploration of the Theory of Optimal Income Taxation,” Review of Economic Studies, 1971, 175--208.
* Stiglitz, J. E., “Self-Selection and Pareto Efficient Taxation,” Journal of Public Economics, 1982, 213--240.
Piketty, Thomas, “Implementation of First-best Allocations via Generalized Tax Schedules” Journal of Economic Theory, Oct 1993; Vol. 61, Iss. 1; pg. 23-41.
Stiglitz, J. E., “Utilitarianism and Horizontal Equity: The Case for Random Taxation,” Journal of Public Economics, 1976.
Varian, Hal R., “Redistributive Taxation as Social Insurance,” Journal of Public Economics, 1980, 49--68.
Slemrod, Joel, S. Yitzhaki and J. Mayshar, “The Optimal Two-bracket Linear Income Tax,” Journal of Public Economics, 1994, 53, 269--290.
Saez, Emmanuel, “Using Elasticities to Derive Optimal Income Tax Rates,” Review of Economic Studies, 68, 2001, 205-29.
* Diamond, Peter, “Optimal Income Taxation: An Example with a U-Shaped Pattern of Optimal Marginal Tax Rates,” American Economic Review, 1998, v. 88 (1), 83--95.
Feldstein, Martin, “The Effect of Marginal Tax Rates on Taxable Income: A Panel Study of the 1986 Tax Reform Act,” Journal of Political Economy, 1995, v. 103 (3), 551--572.
** Jon Gruber and Emmanuel Saez, “The Elasticity of Taxable Income: Evidence and Implications,” Journal of Public Economics, April 2002, 84(1), 1-32.
Slemrod, Joel and Wojciech Kopczuk, “The Optimal Elasticity of Taxable Income,” Journal of Public Economics, April 2002, 84(1), 91-112.
8.3 Pigou, Samuelson and Distortionary Taxation
Atkinson, A.B. and N.H. Stern, “Pigou, Taxes, and Public Goods,” Review of Economic Studies, 1974, 119--128.
Ballard, Charles L. and Don Fullerton, “Distortionary Taxes and the Provision of Public Goods,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1992, 117--131.
* Kaplow, Louis, “The Optimal Supply of Public Goods and the Distortionary Cost of Taxation,” National Tax Journal, 49, 1996, 513—533.
Gaube, Thomas, “When Do Distortionary Taxes Reduce the Optimal Supply of Public Goods?” Journal of Public Economics, May 2000, 151-180.
* Diamond, Peter, “"Optimal Tax Treatment of Private contributions for Public Goods With and Without Warm Glow Preferences" forthcoming, Journal of Public Economics
Saez, Emmanuel, “The Optimal Treatment of Tax Expenditures.” Journal of Public Economics, December 2004, 88, 2657-2684.
Saez, Emmanuel, “The Desirability of Commodity Taxation under non-linear income taxation and heterogeneous tastes,” Journal of Public Economics, February 2002, 83(2), 217-230.
Gilbert E. Metcalf and NBER, “Environmental levies and distortionary taxation: Pigou, taxation and pollution”, Journal of Public Economics, Feb 2003, Vol 87, No. 2, 313-322
9. Law and Economics
Becker, Gary, “Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach,” Journal of Political Economy, 1968, 169--217.
Polinsky and Shavell, ``The Optimal Tradeoff Between the Probability and Magnitude of Fines," American Economic Review, December 1979, 880--891.
Andreoni, J., “Reasonable Doubt and the Optimal Magnitude of Fines: Should the Penalty fit the Crime?,” RAND Journal of Economics, Autumn 1991.
* Polinsky and Shavell, “The Economic Theory of the Public Enforcement of Law,” Journal of Economic Literature, March 2000.
Polinsky and Shavell, “The Fairness of Sanctions: Some Implications for Optimal Enforcement Policy,” American Law and Economics Review, V 2, 2000, 223-237.
Polinsky and Shavell, “Corruption in Optimal Law Enforcement,” Journal of Public Economics, v 81, 2001, 1-24.
Donohue, John J. and Steven D. Levitt, “The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2001, 379-420.
* Levitt, Steven D. “Understanding Why Crime Fell in the 1990s: Four Factors that Explain the Decline and Six that Do Not”, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2004, Volume 18, No.1, 163-190
10. Tax Compliance
* Andreoni, James, Brian Erard, and Jonathan Feinstein, “Tax Compliance,” Journal of Economic Literature, v. 36(2), June 1998, 818-860.
Allingham, Michael G. and Agnar Sandmo, “Income Tax Evasion: A Theoretical Analysis,” Journal of Public Economics, 1, 1972, 323--338.
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11. The Political Economy of Career Advancement (Independent
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