Public economics.

• Position: Bureau News - National Bureau of Economic Research's program

The NBER's Program on Public Economics met in Cambridge on October 30-31. Program Director James M. Poterba of MIT organized this agenda:

Maria Cancian, University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Arik Levinson, NBER and Georgetown University, "Labor Supply and Participation Effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit: Evidence from the National Survey of American's Families and Wisconsin's Supplemental Benefit for Families with Three Children" Discussant: John Karl Scholz, NBER and University of Wisconsin

Antonio Rangel, NBER and Stanford University, and B. Douglas Bernheim, NBER and Stanford University, "Emotions, Cognition, and Savings: Theory and Policy" Discussant: Sendhil Mullainathan, NBER and MIT

Zoran Ivkovic, University of Illinois; James M. Poterba; and Scott Weisbenner, NBER and University of Illinois, "Tax-Motivated Trading By Individual Investors" Discussant." Aleh Tsyvinsky, NBER and University of California, Los Angeles

Christopher House, University of Michigan, and Matthew D. Shapiro, NBER and University of Michigan, "Phased in Tax Cuts and Economic Activity" Discussant: Alan J. Auerbach, NBER and University of California, Berkeley

Henrik J. Kleven and Claus T. Kreiner, University of Copenhagen; Herwig Immervoll, University of Cambridge; and Emmanuel Saez, NBER and University of California, Berkeley, "Welfare Reform in European Countries: A Micro-Simulated Analysis" Discussant: Jorn-Steffen Pischke, NBER and London School of Economics

Shinichi Nishiyama, Congressional Budget Office, and Kent Smetters, NBER and University of Pennsylvania, "Consumption Taxes and Economic Efficiency in a Stochastic OLG Economy" Discussant: Kenneth L. Judd, NBER and Stanford University

Cancian and Levinson examine the labor market consequences of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), comparing labor market behavior of eligible parents in Wisconsin, which supplements the federal EITC for families with three children, to that of similar parents in states that do not supplement the federal EITC. Most previous studies have relied on changes in the EITC over time, or on EITC eligibility differences for families with and without children, or have extrapolated from measured labor supply responses to other tax and benefit programs. In contrast, this cross-state comparison examines a larger difference in EITC benefits among families with two or three children.

Bernheim and Rangel construct a new, simple model of savings in which individuals can make mistakes. They...