ECON 309 - Public Finance and Development

FC SSCI QFR

4 credits
Tax systems in rich countries look very different from those in poor countries. This class will look at challenges faced by governments in low- and middle-income countries in developing an efficient and equitable tax system. Issues we will study include what to tax (income? wealth? property? consumption?), how to reduce tax evasion, how to implement a tax system in the presence of a large informal sector, and how to analyze tax schemes in a normative framework. The course will cover recent empirical papers on the topic, with a focus on the economies of Latin America.

Prerequisites: ECON 251 and ECON 253 and MATH 133.