Ashley C. Craig

Ashley C. Craig

Senior Lecturer, Australian National University

Teaching

Ec 683/4: Graduate Public Finance (University of Michigan)

This course comprised half of the Public Economics sequence of the University of Michigan graduate program in economics. The course asks what role governments should play in the economy, with the aim of developing students’ understanding of the basic theoretical models and tools used in the field. We cover the philosophical foundations of Public Economics, key empirical facts, labor income and consumption taxation, externalities, and human capital.

Ec 490: Advanced Public Economics (University of Michigan)

What role should governments play in the economy? In this course, we review the conditions under which free markets lead to Pareto efficient outcomes — i.e., the government has no way to make everyone better off. We will then discuss how governments may want to intervene to correct for market failures. Even when markets lead to efficient outcomes, we will study why they may use imperfect tools such as taxes to change how outcomes like income are distributed between individuals and groups. The aim of the course is to foster an understanding of the tools required to analyze and evaluate government policies, and develop the student’s ability to communicate the conclusions of their analysis to different audiences. We cover the philosophical foundations of Public Economics, key empirical facts, and both theoretical and empirical methods. Providing time permits, topics include labor and capital income taxation, externalities, public goods, education, social insurance and discrimination.

Ec 1030: Psychology & Economics (Harvard University)

Ec 1420: American Economic Policy (Harvard University)

Ec 1002: Introductory Macroeconomics (University of Sydney)

Ec 1001: Introductory Microeconomics (University of Sydney)

Sunrise
Kangaroos in Canberra (Mulligan’s Flat)