---
title: Public Economics
description: Public economics examines the role of government in the economy, focusing on taxation, public spending, and market failures. Learners will understand how public policies affect economic efficiency, wealth redistribution, and the provision of public goods.
category: finance-economics
subcategory: economics-(social-lens)
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/public-economics
---

# Public Economics

Public economics examines the role of government in the economy, focusing on taxation, public spending, and market failures. Learners will understand how public policies affect economic efficiency, wealth redistribution, and the provision of public goods.

## Available Resources

1 Books • 2 Courses • 3 Websites

## Websites

### 1. CORE Econ - Public Economics Modules

Unit 18 of CORE's open textbook The Economy, covering globalisation in goods, capital and labour markets, comparative advantage, and why trade produces winners and losers within a country. Includes data exercises and worked models.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://www.core-econ.org/the-economy/v1/book/text/18.html

**Tags:** globalization, international-trade, comparative-advantage, capital-flows, open-textbook

### 2. Tax Policy Center Briefing Book

A reference of short sourced explainers on how US federal taxes and the budget process actually work: revenue sources, deficits, tax expenditures, and distributional effects, maintained by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and updated as law changes.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book

**Tags:** us-taxes, tax-policy, federal-budget, tax-expenditures, public-finance

### 3. taxpolicycenter.org

Tax Policy Center is a nonpartisan research site from Brookings and Urban Institute that analyzes U.S. tax policy, its budget impact, and distributional effects. It provides policy briefs, data, interactive tools, and expert analyses on federal and state taxes, reform proposals, and tax expenditures.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://taxpolicycenter.org

**Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, economics

## Courses

### 1. Innovation Systems for Science, Technology, Energy, Manufacturing, and Health (MIT STS.081)

**Author:** William Bonvillian

How the US science and technology innovation system works and the federal government's role in it, through case studies on energy, computing, advanced manufacturing and health. 24 lecture videos and slide notes help learners analyze and critique innovation policy.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/sts-081-innovation-systems-for-science-technology-energy-manufacturing-and-health-spring-2017/

**Tags:** innovation-policy, science-policy, technology-policy, energy-policy, advanced-manufacturing

### 2. Public Finance and Public Policy (MIT 14.41)

**Author:** Jonathan Gruber

Applies microeconomic tools to government policy: externalities and global warming, public goods, school choice, Social Security, health insurance, and tax incidence and rates. Includes 24 lecture videos, problem sets and exams with solutions, explaining why governments intervene and how people respond.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/14-41-public-finance-and-public-policy-fall-2024/

**Tags:** public-finance, taxation, social-insurance, public-goods, externalities

## Books

### 1. Public Finance

**Author:** Harvey S. Rosen

Harvey Rosen's undergraduate textbook on the economics of government: public goods, externalities, cost-benefit analysis, social insurance programs, and the incidence and efficiency effects of taxes, with US institutional detail and empirical evidence throughout.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0072374055?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, economics

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