教學大綱
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課程描述
本課程探討政府因應市場失靈所制訂的管制、課稅或其他對策之理論基礎與實證資料，特別著重於建立及執行用以評價環境政策的工具。其他的議題包含成本效益分析、衡量無市場財貨之效益及管制成本、評估各方面管制政策的影響，如金融市場、工作場所安全衛生、消費者產品保護及其他。
課程要求
同學們應該在每個議題授課前閱讀指定的論文，每堂課均必須出席，因為學生參與討論是這堂課的重要成分。
每位同學要口頭報告一篇教學大綱中的論文(也可找其他重要的論文)，報告時間40分鐘，方式不拘，可選擇使用黑板、幻燈片或用電腦簡報軟體。
除了口頭報告，同學必須預先準備約三頁的書面報告，內容應摘述該論文，並且評論之，評論是整個報告中最重要的部分，應佔報告2/3的長度，同學應該著重使用上課提及的評估準則以評論該文，對於有理論模型的論文，討論模型的適宜性與洞悉度，及實證方法的可信度，若論文沒有理論模型，同學應討論其理想的模型為何，若為理論性論文，同學應討論如何有意義地驗證此理論模型。
老師希望所有的學生課前均能閱讀同學的報告與指定的論文，以及準備好在同學簡報時提出有見地的問題。
同時，同學須事先獲得老師同意其想報告與討論的論文。教學大綱中的所有閱讀資料都是不錯的候選論文，但也可自行選擇論文，主要的限制條件是選擇的論文必須符合本堂課程的主旨，也就是分析市場失靈與政府對市場失靈的因應政策。
最後，根據情況而定，會有一到二個應用分析性的作業集。
課程目標
本課程目標在於藉由學習好論文的組成使學生發展成具研究能力的經濟學家。或許你很難相信，研究所課程的分數並不是很重要，最終的評估是你自主完成的論文。因此，本課程(以及其他課程)應視作一個發展研究能力的機會，包括主導學術潮流與發掘尚待解決且自己有興趣的研究課題之能力，因此同學們在課堂上應對於任何不清楚、模糊、或自己有興趣的問題盡量發問。這類問答交流是研究所教育的重要部分。
Description
This course explores the theory behind and evidence on regulatory, tax, and other government responses to problems of market failure. Special emphasis is given to developing and implementing tools to evaluate environmental policies. Other topics include cost-benefit analysis, measurement of the benefits of non-market goods and costs of regulations, and the evaluation of the impact of regulations in areas such as financial markets, workplace health and safety, consumer product safety, and other contexts.
Requirements
Students should read assigned readings before the lecture on that topic. Class attendance is mandatory as student participation is a crucial ingredient in the course.
Every student is required to make a presentation to the class of an existing paper from the syllabus (or elsewhere). Each presentation will be allotted 40 minutes. Students should feel free to use the blackboard and/or transparencies/powerpoint.
As a part of the presentation, students are required to prepare a report (roughly 3 pages) on the paper that they are discussing. The report should summarize and critically review the paper. The critical review is the most important part of the report and should account for roughly 2/3 of the total length. Students should concentrate on evaluating the paper with the criteria that we have discussed in class. Where appropriate, discuss the appropriateness/insightfulness of the model and/or the credibility of the empirical approach. If the paper does not have a model, students may want to discuss what a good model would look like. If the paper is theoretical, students should discuss what a meaningful test of the model would look like.
I expect that all of the students will read the report and paper before class and that they will be prepared to ask insightful questions during the presentations.
Also, please contact me for approval of the paper that you want to present. The syllabus contains some good candidates but feel free to come up with your own suggestions. The primary constraint is that the paper should fit within the course's goal of analyzing market failures and regulatory responses to these failures.
Finally, depending on demand, there are one or two applied problem sets.
Objectives
The object of the course is to aid in your development as a research economist by helping you learn what constitutes a good paper. It may be difficult to believe, but grades are relatively unimportant in graduate school. Ultimately, you will be judged almost exclusively on your thesis. Thus, this course (and all others) should be viewed as an opportunity to develop tools necessary to conduct cutting edge research and to identify unanswered questions that interest you. The practical importance of this is that you should ask questions in class about any aspect of the course that is unclear, puzzling, or that simply interests you. This dialogue is a key part of graduate education.
