Intranational Economics
Spring 2012


 


Reading List (version Jan 20)

 

The purpose of the class is to develop ideas for research papers as spelled out in reading list. The topics covered will be decided as we go along. We will list topics on this WEB-page. (Papers listed at available in JSTOR if nothing else is said.) Please download papers for class and read/skim ahead of time.

 

January 18th: Start of class.

January 23rd: Steven Craig will cover:

P. Samuelson, "The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure," REStat, Nov 1954

____________, "The Diagrammatic Exposition of the Theory of Public Expenditures," REStat, Nov 1955

           T. Bergstrom and R. Goodman, "Private Demands for Public Goods," AER, June 1973

January 25th: Steve will finish where he left off and then cover the very famous paper by Rothschild and Stiglitz (1976)

Jan 30th: Bent talks about cyclicality of state/local budgets. Sorensen, Wu, Yosha (2001)

Feb 1st: Finish EER paper, students talk about data

Feb 6th: Bent talks about state level consumption. Luengo-Prado and Sorensen (2008)

Feb 8th: Bent talks about risk sharing, I will do most of the QJE paper and then talk about    

              the applications to government consumption smoothing in the other two papers

              Asdrubali, Sorensen, Yosha, QJE 1996

              Federal Insurance for US States: An Empirical Investigation

              Consumption Smoothing through Fiscal Policy in OECD and EU Countries

Feb 13th: Some talk about data and Steve talks about Craig and Hoang (2011)

Feb 15th: Steve finish Craig and Hoang but mainly talk about Behrman and Craig (1987)

Feb 20th: Bent will talk about the Barro Tax Smoothing Model (see Romer’s textbook)

Feb 22nd: Steve will talk about pensions, based on Mitchell and Smith (1994)

Feb 27th: Bent will talk about strategic debt accumlation (Romer, 4th ed. Section 12.6)

               (Students should get ready to work on some actual data).

Feb 29th: We will talk about data

Chris provided link to BC pension data             http://crr.bc.edu/special_projects/state_and_local_pension_plans.html

               Wen provided 2 links to the CalPers WEB site:


http://www.calpers.ca.gov/eip-docs/about/facts/general.pdf 
 (General Facts about CalPERS, including annual contributions for 20 years and funded status of retirement plans since 2005)
http://www.calpers.ca.gov/eip-docs/about/pubs/2010-st-body.pdf 

(Actuarial Reports in 2010, which contains rich history information since 1987 about liabilities, contribution rates, funded status, asset allocations and investment returns

 

 

CraigHmissiMukherjeeSorensen.pdf (Draft, March 30, 2012)