George Zodrow

Provides an economic analysis of the theory and practice of tax policy, focusing on the evaluation of alternative tax systems in terms of equity, efficiency, and simplicity. Analyzes tax the effects of various taxes on individual and business behavior, including labor supply, saving, and investment. Discusses general equilibrium modeling of the economic and distributional effects of alternative tax systems and tax reforms. Special topics include the choice between income-based and consumption-based taxation, tax incidence, optimal taxation, taxation of the family, and state and local public finance.

Research workshop open to ECON and MTEC majors. Students must have a GPA of at least 3.67 in all courses taken toward satisfying major requirements, and must have taken all ECON courses directly related to the topic of their research. Students develop a research idea, construct an economic model with testable hypotheses, test those hypotheses, and write and present an academic quality paper. Econometrics pre-requisite is ECON 209 for ECON majors and ECON 310 for MTEC majors.

Assists students in the dissertation writing process. Students must write an independent and original piece of quantitative research that is of sufficient quality to merit publication in an academic economics journal. Towards this objective, faculty mentor evaluate and critique the research of PhD students who are either preparing research before formally selecting a dissertation topic or actively engaged in dissertation research. Repeatable for Credit.