Economics
of Public
Policy
School of Public Service
Boise State University
Instructor
Chris Birdsall
chrisbirdsall@boisestate.edu
ERB 1149
Office hours by appointment
Course details
Wednesdays
January 13–April 28, 2027
Time and room TBA
Textbook: Economy, Society, and Public Policy (CORE, free online)
How this course works
Economics is easier to understand once you’ve been part of it. Each week we start by being the economic actors ourselves. Then we draw the model that explains what happened, and use it on a real policy question.
Play it
A short live experiment, run on your phone or with a deck of cards. We contribute to a public good, make and reject offers, trade in a market, and bargain over wages.
Draw it
We build the textbook model from our own results, using interactive figures where you move the sliders and watch what changes.
Use it
We apply the model to a live policy, often an Idaho one. All semester you’ll work as the economist on one policy you choose.
Explorers
These are interactive figures for the graphs that matter most. Change the inputs and see what the model predicts.
Who pays a sugar tax?
Supply, demand, and a per-unit tax. See how the tax splits between buyers and sellers, what it raises, and what it costs in lost trades.
Lorenz curves and the Gini coefficient
Compare Idaho and the US using Census data, then build your own economy and watch the Gini change.
Schedule
Read the unit after class, once you’ve seen the model in action. Each lab night we do a Doing Economics project together in Excel.
| Date | Unit | Play it | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 13 | Welcome · 1 Capitalism and democracy | Income line-up | |
| Jan 20 | 2 Social interactions | Public goods game | |
| Jan 27 | 2 Nash equilibrium and bargaining | Climate prisoners’ dilemma | Lab 1 · our experiment data |
| Feb 3 | 3 Fairness and efficiency | Ultimatum game | Policy pick |
| Feb 10 | 3 How do we know a policy works? | Daycare fines | Lab 2 · sugar tax |
| Feb 17 | 4 Work, wellbeing, and scarcity | Time-use trade-offs | Memo 1 |
| Feb 24 | 5 Institutions, power, and inequality | Angela & Bruno role-play | Lab 3 · Lorenz and Gini |
| Mar 3 | 6 The firm | Wage and effort game | |
| Mar 10 | Midterm · project workshop | Midterm | |
| Mar 17 | Spring break | ||
| Mar 24 | 7 Firms and markets | Pit-market trading | Memo 2 |
| Mar 31 | 7 Taxes and market power | Tax explorer | Lab 4 · supply and demand |
| Apr 7 | 8 Labor and product markets | Minimum-wage evidence | |
| Apr 14 | 11 Market successes and failures | Lemons and fishery games | Memo 3 |
| Apr 21 | 12 Governments and markets | Feasibility triage | |
| Apr 28 | Policy testimony | Committee hearing | Testimony |
| May 5 | Finals week | Final policy brief | |
Draft schedule. Canvas has the official dates and assignments.