Murphy-Economics Seminar: Jacob Bastian (Rutgers)

The Murphy Institute Spring Seminar Series in Economics

Each semester The Murphy Institute sponsors a series of seminars organized by the Tulane Department of Economics that provides an opportunity for faculty, researchers, and practitioners to present their latest research and pressing issues related to topics in political economy. Research presented covers all aspects of contemporary economics, including the economics of education, health economics, and public economics, as well as in economic history, international economics, and core areas in political economy.  Papers are distributed one week beforehand to the participants who read the paper and prepare discussion questions for the presenter.

Jacob Bastian is an Assistant Professor of Economic sat Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Prior to joining Rutgers, he completed a two-year postdoc at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy and a Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Michigan. Bastian's research focuses on how public policy can reduce poverty, increase economic opportunity, and affect social attitudes, while also identifying unintended consequences. Specifically, his research has looked at the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and finds that this program helped lead to the rise of working mothers in the 1970s, improved the education and employment outcomes of children of EITC recipients, changed social attitudes about the role of women in society, and had positive effects on marriage and fertility. In new work, he shows that the EITC helps "pay for itself" by increasing various forms of tax revenue and by decreasing reliance on other forms of public assistance.