LLM Wealth and Public Policy Seminar

This seminar considers wealth and income distribution in connection with public policies to achieve basic goals of democracy such as economic growth, social stability, reducing poverty, and promoting both social equality and individual freedom. It examines how the federal government attempts to achieve these goals directly through spending programs (such as those that subsidize agricultural goods or public housing) and indirectly through tax expenditures that lower tax liability by giving special treatment in the form of deductions, exclusions and credits (such as the home interest deduction or the adoption and energy credits). Although the seminar concentrates on the United States, it puts the issues in a broader context by means of some international comparisons. Topics range from general philosophical questions of what is fair to current political issues such as education and the role of inherited wealth in society.