Public Finance

Professors notes:
It is important that you focus your attention narrowly so that you can do the necessary research to write a good paper. For example, you should write about the individual mandate rather than the entire ACA, or the desirability of a VAT instead of tax reform in general. These are mini-research papers that require you to take a side on an issue and defend it with evidence. It is NOT an exploratory paper in which you examine a topic from multiple points of view and analyze those points of view. You must state your opinion in the first sentence of the paper and then continue on to try to convince me that you are correct. The first paragraph of your paper will also mention the public finance principles relevant to your issue and your position. You must take a side, assert a policy, or otherwise show off your ability to reach a considered conclusion on the basis of evidence.

•  Click here for more on this paper.......
  Click here to have a similar A+ quality paper done for you by one of our writers within the set deadline at a discounted.....
  
  

Your grade on each paper will reflect the quality of your reasoning and the strength of your argument. Argument alone, without evidence in support, will not suffice. It will not suffice if you simply cite someone or multiple people who agree with you: what is the basis on which they reached their conclusion(s)? Be careful: you can find many allegations about various policies that have little or no basis in the evidence, and you may be tempted to accept them simply because they sound reasonable and agree with you.

Start your search for appropriate literature at Google Scholar. Relevant sources of evidence are articles in professional journals such as the National Tax Journal, publications of respectable think tanks such as the Brookings Institution or American Enterprise Institute (NOT the Heritage Foundation or the Cato Institute), and books by public finance scholars. IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBT ABOUT A SOURCE, ASK ME BEFORE CONTINUING TO USE IT. If for some reason you cite an ebook, be careful: I will not attempt to check references that do not use the actual page numbers from printed sources. No exceptions. When you read public intellectuals, such as Paul Krugman or Bruce Bartlett, look past their opinions to the evidence that they cite, and then read and use the source.

•  Click here for more on this paper.......
  Click here to have a similar A+ quality paper done for you by one of our writers within the set deadline at a discounted.....
  
  

A word on evidence: be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking that anecdotes are evidence: usually they are not. Evidence is data or experimental results. For example, some people say that the ACA caused part-time work to become more important, and in support of this contention they cite an example or a few examples of instances in which companies claim to have reduced the hours of full-time workers in response to the law. While these may be interesting stories, the examples are neither evidence nor data, because in order to be evidence, the examples must be shown to illustrate a larger pattern of generalizable behavior. That larger pattern can be shown only via the use of data. Social scientists need to be scrupulously careful in making assertions: you are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to make up “facts” to support those opinions.

Writing: Be sure to check carefully the various pieces of advice about writing. Ensure that you do not make errors mentioned in those pieces, since doing so will show that you did not pay attention. Most of those errors are ones that will make you look foolish if you make them in your work lives, so you have even more reason than the grade in this class to learn how to avoid them. I loath errors that you could have caught with more careful proofreading, so be aware that hurry-up jobs are likely to get low grades due simply to sloppiness regardless of the quality of your substantive work.

Papers should be 5 pages: 1” margins, 12-point type.

Chose one out of these topics:
Due 28 Feb:
--Social Security (SS) should be privatized.
--There are a couple of easy fixes for the long-run health of SS.
--In re Romney’s famous quote about the 47%, that they are dependent on the government and pay no income tax: what’s the real deal?
--There is too much income inequality in the U.S.
--The deficit should be reduced soon—within the next year or 2.
--The national debt is already too high and needs to come down.

•  Click here for more on this paper.......
  Click here to have a similar A+ quality paper done for you by one of our writers within the set deadline at a discounted.....