Macroeconomics II
Philip Leatherwood, Lecturer
Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Planning
26 April, 2001
Supply Side Tax Cuts
There are three questions at the end of our reading, as follows:
1. Evaluate President Reagan's strategy for implementing his tax plan.
2. What role might business have played in altering the legislative tax plan?
3. What institutional changes could you suggest that would improve the legislative process?
We are going to use these questions as a springboard for debate. The class will be split into two teams. The affirmative team will argue that particular institutional changes are needed—that legislative processes can lead to better economic policy if done a different, specific way. The status quo will be critiqued based on our readings (especially the last one), and a new legislative arrangement will be specified.
The negative team will argue against change--that the status quo allows for policy superior to the system proposed.
Our time will be divided as follows:
12:00 to 12:10 Attendance and explanation
12:10 to 12:30 Team preparation
12:30 to 12:40 Affirmative team presentation
12:40 to 12:50 Negative team critique
12:50 to 12:55 Negative team proposal
12:55 to 13:00 Affirmative team critique
13:00to 13:05 Negative team summary
13:05 to 13:10 Affirmative team summary
13:10 to 13:15 Class discussion
Quiz points will be awarded according to a written schedule presented to me by each group--two points for each group member, distributed as the group agrees. (Some members may be willing to sacrifice points in order to avoid an active role in the debate.)