University of Alaska, Southeast Economics of Public Policy (PADM/BA 625) Fall, 2004

Transcription

1 University of Alaska, Southeast Economics of Public Policy (PADM/BA 625) Fall, 2004 Who, when, where PADM 625, Economics of Public Policy, will be taught by Ben Muse on Thursday nights from September 9 to December 9 from 7 to 9:45 PM (8 to 10:45 PM in the Yukon). Some things you should do right away: Post your address to the web site list Post a digital picture of yourself to UAS Online Order your textbook Take care of the first readings before class on September 9. Complete the proctor form Important contact information Instructor: Ben Muse home work work ben.muse@noaa.gov home benmuse@acsalaska.net Teaching Assistant: Cathy Muse phone benmuse@acsalaska.net MPA office UAS office Karen Cummins Karen.Cummins@uas.alaska.edu UAS office phone (Karen Cummins) UAS office - Brenda Brown UAS office toll free (distance students only) UAS office fax toll free (distance students only) UAS office fax (in Juneau) URL fo r Class UAS Online web page &behavior=UAS&session=3210 You may call me at home up to 10:30 PM on any day (weekends included). Please, only call my office about urgent issues or issues that we can deal with quickly. Revised

2 You may call Cathy Muse during the day or evening until 10:30 PM on any day. Text The text for this class is Public Finance and the American Economy 2nd edition, by Neil Bruce. (Addison Wesley, 2001). Class Outline Topical outline Dates Tentative list of subjects (relevant text chapters in parentheses) Introduction 9-9 Overview or class; different ways of making decisions about who gets what, when, and how; statistical overview of U.S. and Canadian fiscal Social decision making through markets Social decision making through government Government and the distribution of income statistics; class mechanics (C1) 9-16 Using markets to make allocation decisions; benefits from using markets, exploiting markets for administrative purposes; concept of market failures (C2) 9-23 Public goods and monopoly as examples of market failure; public good model of interest groups (C3) 9-30 Externalities, moral hazard, and asymmetric information as examples of market failures (C4) 10-7 Government as an alternative to markets as a means of making social decisions Government as an alternative to markets as a means of making social decisions (C5) Cost and benefit analysis as a tool for guiding decision making (C6) Income distribution issues (C7) 11-4 Poverty (C8) Social security and medicare (c9) Selected issue in taxation Introduction to incidence and efficiency issues associated with taxation. Emphasis on the excise tax (selections from C10, C11, and C12) U.S. Thanksgiving State and local governments 12-2 Spending by state and local governments; the Tiebout hypotheses; fiscal federalism; grants (C18) 12-9 Taxation by state and local governments (C19) Finals week to 18 In some cases you won t be required to read the entire text chapter. Additional weekly readings will be assigned. A separate, detailed, reading schedule will be posted to the class UAS Online website. This may be updated as the class proceeds. Important dates Sep 7 Sep 7-13 Sep First Day of Instruction Drop period 100% refund for full term classes Drop Period 50% refund for full term classes Revised

3 Sep 20 Sep 21 Sep 21 Nov 15 Nov 24 Nov Dec 1 Dec Dec 20 Last Day to Change Credit or Audit status Withdraw Period begins (full term classes only) Last Day to Return Fall Textbooks Spring 2004 registration begins Last day to withdraw from classes Thanksgiving Break Graduation application deadline for fall Finals Week Grades Available Via Web Internet This class has a site on the University of Alaska Southeast UAS Online. ( Class materials will be posted to this site, and you will be expected to submit some assignments using this site. As a UAS student you also have a computer account with UAS. You should ask about this at computer services. Your browser needs a PDF reader in order to use files posted in the PDF format. If you do not have one you can download one for free fro m the following site: UAS computer help desk Do you have computer related questions? The Help Desk can help. You can contact them toll free by phone at , by fax at , or by at helpdesk@uas.alaska.edu. In addition, the Help Desk web site at offers a number of services including computer configuration for UAS Internet access, downloads of Shockwave, Quicktime, and Adobe Acrobat, FAQs, virus information and more Grading Short weekly essays Short essays on topics suggested by readings 15% Class participation This includes class attendance and contributions and Blackboard 10% contributions. Four tri-weekly exams Closed book and proctored. 75% When I grade I will follow the guidelines in Guidelines for Student Evaluation in Graduate Public Administration Courses. These may be found on the class web site. An average student should be getting a grade of B in this class. Short weekly essays: Submit a word essay on a question or topic related to each week s readings. I ll post topics each week. Responses are due by the start of the class for which the readings are assigned. Responses should be submitted using the essay question feature that will be set up on the class web site. Class participation: Students will be graded on contributions to class discussion, and facility in answering questions posed in class by the instructor, as well as on participation in online discussions. Four biweekly exams: 75% of the grade will be based on a series of four exams, one approximately every three weeks. The exams will be closed book exams, requiring an hour and a half to complete. Questions will include a mixture of multiple choice, short essay questions, and practice with diagrammatic analysis. Exams must be taken under the supervision of a proctor. Revised

4 Proctors must be identified to the School of Business and Pubic Administration in advance using the form that may be found here: Identify a person who will be willing to proctor your exam, have them fill out the form and fax it to Karen Cummins in the School of Business and Public Administration (the fax number is above). When it is time to take the exam, Karen will or fax the exam to your proctor who will administer it to you. Once you ve taken the exam, your proctor will be responsible for faxing it back to Karen at the toll free number. Weeks Date exam available Date exam due Sep 9 to Sep Sep 30 to Oct Oct 21 to Nov Nov 11 to Dec Exams will be available from Karen Cummins at the School of Business and Public Administration on the indicated dates. Karen will or fax the exam to the person you designate as your proctor when you ask her to by or phone call. Exams should be faxed back to the School of Business and Public Administration by the date of the next class (shown above as due dates). Given the numbers of persons in the class, people waiting until the due date may have problems with fax machine congestion. My policy is to drop your lowest exam and short weekly essay grades. Because of demanding personal and professional schedules, students are often unable to take an exam during the scheduled time. I ve found that dropping one grade is administratively simpler and less disruptive to the class than providing extended time in which to take the exam. As a side-benefit, if you ve done well, you may decide to treat yourself by skipping the last exam. MPA Incomplete Policy Incompletes (I) are normally discouraged. They may be offered, at the discretion of the instructor, to students who have completed most of their coursework, but need more time to complete their final assignments. Students desiring an incomplete must have a written contract with their instructor specifying when they will complete their work and what grade will be filed if the prescribed work is not completed by the contracted deadline. Note that the contract is a written contract submitted on a standard form available in the Resources section of the class web site, under Distance Education forms. Plagiarism Policy Plagiarism is the use of others written or oral material without attribution or citation. Verbatim material should be enclosed by quotes and cited with the page number. Paraphrased material should also be cited. A helpful leaflet on plagiarism is available from Indiana University at the following web site: (accessed August 26, 2004.) If I identify plagiarized material I reserve the right to respond as appropriate. The response may include denial of credit for an assignment with or without an opportunity to redo the assignment, automatic failure for the class, or disciplinary action by the university. The University of Alaska Board of Regents policy P states: Disciplinary action may be initiated by the university and disciplinary sanctions imposed against any student or student organization found responsible for committing, attempting to commit, or intentionally assisting in the commission of any of the following prohibited forms of conduct: A. cheating, plagiarism, or other forms of academic dishonesty; Revised

5 MPA Program Competencies UAS has identified six competencies for all students to achieve at UAS, both undergraduate and graduate. The MPA program addresses all of these objectives in its curriculum. These issues overlap in most classes. We will focus particularly on communication, both oral and written. This is the means by which all social activity happens: Competency in communication Competency in quantitative skills Competency in information literacy Competency in computer usage Competency in professional behavior Competency in critical thinking Disability Support Services UAS strives to be supportive of all its students. Providing equal opportunity for students who experience disability is a campus-wide responsibility. No otherwise qualified individual will be denied reasonable access to, participation in, or the benefits of, any program or activity operated by the University of Alaska because of disability. Toward this end, UAS provides Disability Support Services. DSS helps each qualified student with a disability to receive appropriate academic adjustments and/or program accommodations necessary for the student to access educational opportunities, programs, activities, or services in the most integrated setting possible. Contact the DSS Coordinator either by phone or appointment for more information. Disability Support Services UAS, Novatney Building, Suite (appt), (desk) Your instructor I ve worked as an economist for the Alaska Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission and the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service since I got my doctorate from Cornell University where I concentrated in natural resource economics. I ve taught a variety of economics and policy courses at the University of Alaska Southeast on and off since the late eighties. Revised