Public Finance and Public Policy

Dr. Jonathan Gruber is the Ford Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

PART I Introduction and Background
   1  Why Study Public Finance?  
   2  Theoretical Tools of Public Finance
   3  Empirical Tools of Public Finance  
   4  Budget Analysis and Deficit Financing     
PART II Externalities and Public Goods
   5  Externalities: Problems and Solutions       
   6  Externalities in Action: Environmental and Health Externalities   
   7  Public Goods 
   8  Cost-Benefit Analysis          
   9  Political Economy    
   10 State and Local Government Expenditures 
   11 Education    
PART III Social Insurance and Redistribution
   12 Social Insurance: The New Function of Government          
   13 Social Security          
   14 Unemployment Insurance, Disability Insurance, and Workers’ Compensation            
   15 Health Insurance I: Health Economics and Private Health Insurance            
   16 Health Insurance II: Medicare, Medicaid, and Health Care Reform            
   17 Income Distribution and Welfare Programs
PART IV Taxation in Theory and Practice
   18 Taxation: How It Works and What It Means
   19 The Equity Implications of Taxation: Tax Incidence            <   20 Tax Inefficiencies and Their Implications for Optimal Taxation   
   21 Taxes on Labor Supply  
   22 Taxes on Savings       
   23 Taxes on Risk Taking and Wealth   
   24 Taxation of Business Income
   25 Fundamental Tax Reform and Consumption Taxation