3.0

Average Course Rating

A key contribution of economics to the policymaking process is understanding and predicting reactions of agents affected by policy changes. Many policies have unintended or indirect effects that are at least as important as their direct impacts, but less obvious. Fortunately, economic theory provides us a framework to understand them. In this course, we will survey a wide variety of subjects, from taxation, to drug policy and harm reduction, to health insurance plan design and regulation, to bankruptcy codes. Working in groups, students will prepare presentations on specific policy proposals not directly covered in class, in which they will describe (with evidence) all the channels by which that policy will act.