Public Economics I
This MIT OpenCourseWare course examines how governments design and evaluate tax policy. Topics include tax incidence, meaning who actually bears the burden of a tax once markets adjust, optimal tax theory, and how taxation shapes labor supply, savings, and corporate behavior. A section on tax expenditure policy looks at deductions, credits, and exemptions as implicit spending programs. Materials include lecture notes, problem sets, and readings drawn from public finance literature, covering both theoretical models and empirical evidence on real-world tax systems. The course is aimed at students with a background in microeconomics who want to understand the tools economists use to judge whether a tax system is efficient or equitable. As with other MIT OCW offerings, all materials are free to access, with no certificate offered, under a Creative Commons license.