State Government Spending

Choose one area of federal or state government spending and analyze its past, present and future.

For this writing assignment, you are to select one are of government spending. The area can be federal, state, local or even joint programs.  The more specific you can be, the better your essay will be. Your essay should give us the history of the program, a description of the current state of the program and any recent changes, and some discussion of the economic and other effects of the program. Also, be sure to discuss how the program does or does not fit with the various economic rationales for government spending we’ve discussed in class (non-rival, non-excludable, etc).

For example, Healthcare is way too broad. Even a specific program such as Medicaid, is a little too broad, but getting closer.  “Changes to the Medicad program under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” is about right. If this was your topic, you could talk about the history of Medicaid generally, what changes were made under PPACA, why some states choose not to change Medicaid (About half states didnt) and what some economic and non-economic effects are or might be(for example, on labor force participation and labor force)

 

Sources to include:

Academic sources (peer reviewed journal articles or university press books)

1 data source

Be sure to choose sources  that directly address the same question as you

Data must include at least one original table, figure, graph, or chart. By original I mean you created the figure yourself.