Milestone map
Milestone map
2 milestones
Do the exercises and show your work
7–14 weeks (8 hrs/week)
Take Public Finance and Public Policy for free and do the problem sets (externalities, public goods, taxation, social insurance, redistribution). Keep your answers in one public place (a repo, a shared folder or a page) as you go, with your reasoning shown.
Proof required
Link your public folder with the problem sets (externalities, public goods, taxation, social insurance, redistribution), and show your self-check (14.41: problem sets and exams).
What gets checked
- Models are solved correctly.
- Welfare claims state who gains and who loses.
- Exam answers are marked with the corrections.
Common mistakes
- Answers copied from a key: verifiers read the reasoning.
- Numbers with no working.
- Asking for review before the self-check.
Powstik Guide
A public folder with your worked answers to the problem sets (externalities, public goods, taxation, social insurance, redistribution).
Steps
- Make a public folder or repo for this course.
- Do one chapter or problem set at a time and save it.
- Self-check: Do each problem set and exam under time, then mark yourself against the solutions where the course posts them. Where it does not, rework the numbers in a spreadsheet and check that every total ties out.
- Fix what the self-check shows, and say what you fixed.
- Ask three people who know the topic to check it.
Template
README Course: Public Finance and Public Policy (MIT OpenCourseWare) What is here: Self-check result: The hardest question and why:
What gets sent back
- Answers with no working.
- Self-check not shown.
Resources
Foundationstart here
Depthgo deeper
What a verifier looks for
- Models are solved correctly.
- Welfare claims state who gains and who loses.
- Exam answers are marked with the corrections.
- Pick two answers and check every step.
- Ask about one step; the answer should be clear.
You'll sign in first, then come straight back here.
Assess one tax or benefit
1–3 weeks (5–8 hrs/week)
Use what you learned. Make an analysis of one real tax or benefit in your country: who pays, who gains, what it costs, what the evidence says about its effects and one change you would test. Put it where verifiers can open it. Use public information, or data you have permission to use; never publish a real person's private details.
Proof required
Link an analysis of one real tax or benefit in your country: who pays, who gains, what it costs, what the evidence says about its effects and one change you would test, and a short note on what you decided or changed because of it.
What gets checked
- Rates and amounts are from official sources.
- Who gains and who loses is worked out, not assumed.
- The proposed change has a way to be tested.
Common mistakes
- Invented or unsourced figures.
- A conclusion the evidence does not support.
Powstik Guide
An analysis of one real tax or benefit in your country: who pays, who gains, what it costs, what the evidence says about its effects and one change you would test.
Steps
- Write one line: what you will show.
- Gather the real data, people or documents.
- Draft it, then read it cold the next day.
- Ask someone to mark the first claim they doubt.
- Fix it and ask three people to check it.
Template
Title: What this shows: Sources: Method: Result: Limits:
What gets sent back
- Unsourced numbers.
- Not clearly the person's own work.
- Claims more than it shows.
Resources
Foundationstart here
Depthgo deeper
What a verifier looks for
- Rates and amounts are from official sources.
- Who gains and who loses is worked out, not assumed.
- The proposed change has a way to be tested.
- Check that the work is the person's own and the sources are real.
- Ask how a number was found.
You'll sign in first, then come straight back here.