PADM 5173 - Market Regulation

Spring. 1 credit. Letter grades only.

Enrollment limited to: EMPA students.

C. Casady.

This graduate-level survey course addresses issues in market regulation and public policy. It reviews and applies tools acquired in prior economics and PADM classes to examine several important policy problems. This class will refine students’ ability to use economics and statistics to illuminate the causes and consequences of several policy interventions. It will illustrate how those tools can help formalize and organize complex concepts and thus reveal both intended and unintended effects of various policies. We examine several specific policies and their effects. Those include racial discrimination and deregulation in trucking, unintended effects of the Endangered Species Act, the move from a military draft to an All-Volunteer Military, and real-time, network-wide pricing of roads, among others. A broader goal is facility in reading relevant economic literature. As a graduate-level course, students are expected to have thoroughly read all materials prior to class and be well-prepared to discuss readings/cases/case memos with colleagues.

Outcome 1: Students will demonstrate enhanced understanding of the motivation and rationale for various types of government intervention in the marketplace.

Outcome 2: Students will articulate a standard set of rationales for government intervention, as well as the importance of history and the details of institutional arrangements to thoroughly understand that intervention.

Outcome 3: Students will be better able to read peer-reviewed academic literature in public policy, as well as formally analyze new policy proposals.