Instructor: Robin D. Hanson, Assoc. Professor, Economics (rhanson@gmu.edu, http://hanson.gmu.edu)
Phone: Office 703-993-2326, Cell 703-201-8129.
Office Hours: Officially Wednesday 5-7p, but I'm available at far more times; email or call.

Catalog Entry:

Economic problems in light of current and proposed public policies. Topics include environmental issues, international trade policies, and regulatory issues and their historical roots. Limited to three attempts. Recommended Prerequisite: ECON 100 or 103 and 104 or permission of instructor.

Assignments:

• Class Participation Please contribute to class discussions.
• Quizzes Three in-class quizzes will given. You are given 45min for each quiz. Quizzes are open book, open notes.
• Defended Opinions Three times you will write a defense of your opinions on a legal topic. The assigned topics will be unusual, in order to encourage you to think them through yourself, rather than looking up what others have said. Limit your writing to two pages. I grade on how many relevant economic arguments you make clear; we will discuss this more in class.
• Final Exam This includes both an additional quiz and an additional defended opinion.

1. Should we tax soda more than other food and drink?
2. Should we adopt a self-set property tax?
3. Should we switch to bounties and vouchers for crime detection and punishment?

• Quizes: 15Sep,6Oct,3Nov
• Defended Opinions: 6Oct,3Nov,24Nov
• Final: Dec 8, 7:30-10:15pm

Schedule

Week		Topic
25 Aug		Review of Econ, Humans
1 Sep		Paternalism, Talk
8 Sep		Insurance
15 Sep		Food	Quiz
22 Sep		Fertility
29 Sep		Medicine
6 Oct		School	Quiz,Paper
13 Oct		Jobs
20 Oct		Land, Finance
27 Oct		Law
3 Nov		Discrimination	Quiz,Paper
10 Nov		Emergencies, Innovation
17 Nov		No Class
24 Nov		No Class	Paper
1 Dec		World, Systems
8 Dec		Final Exam

Readings

Readings are at http://hanson.gmu.edu/EC309readings.html