EE 448 Selected Topics in Public Economics: Public Choice
New Content added Wednesday, December 8th, 7:30 p.m.
August 10 Notes Week I: Public Choice, and the Virginia School of Economics
Buchanan, James: "Public Choice: The Origins and Development of a Research Program
August 18, 20 Notes Week II: Pigovian Taxes, PD Games, Externalities, the Coase Theorem
Coase, Ronald H: "The Problem of Social Cost"
August 25, 27 Notes Week III: Allocation vs. Distribution, Buchanan/Tullock model - The Optimal Voting Rule
Sept 1, 3 Notes Week IV: The Median Voter Model
Congleton, Roger: The Median Voter Model
Sept 8, 10 Notes Week V: The Median Voter Model: Cycling, Asymmetry, Agenda Setters,
The Median Voter Model: Utility asymmetry, Information Asymmetry, Pork
Sept 15, 17 Notes Week VI: Voting Rules, Money and Incumbency
Sept 22, 24 Notes Week VII: Exit and the theory of the Club
September 29, Midterm
Oct 6, 8 Notes Week VIII Rent Seeking
Oct 13, 15 Notes Week IX Rent Seeking, Distributive Coalitions
Oct 20, 22 Notes Week X REVISED VERSION -- The Niskanen Bureaucracy
Oct 27, 29 Notes Week XI REVISED VERSION -- Dictatorship
Students interested in the source material can go to Olsen, Mancur and Martin McGuire: The Economics of Autocracy and Majority Rule
The intuition is pretty straightforward, note the simple math model is not
Nov 3, 5 Notes Week XII Social Welfare Functions
Nov 10, 12 Notes Week XIII The Growth of Government, REVISED VERSION -- Leviathan
Nov 17, 19 Notes Week XIV The political business cycle
Nov 24, 26 Notes Week XV Constitutional Economics
Dec 1, Review for Final Exam
Dec 13, Midterm Exam
Last Modified; December 11, 2010