Dr. John Anderson is the Baird Family Professor of Economics at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. He is also the Executive Director of the Central Plains Research Data Center (CPRDC), part of the federal statistical research data network, located at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Economics at Western Michigan University and his Ph.D. in Economics at Claremont Graduate University. Dr. Anderson is an economist and an advisor to public policymakers in the field of public finance, fiscal reform, and tax policy.
His academic research and policy advising has been published in more than one hundred journal articles, books, book chapters, and government reports. The second edition of his textbook, Public Finance: Theory and Policy, used by students around the world, was published by Cengage Learning in 2012. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Departments of State, Transportation, and Agriculture.
Dr. Anderson served as a senior economist with the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in Washington, DC, in 2005-06. He has also advised state governors and legislatures, and numerous state agencies in the United States. He is a Distinguished Scholar at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, MA, conducting research on property taxation.
Internationally, Dr. Anderson has served as a technical advisor on USAID fiscal reform projects and local government reform projects in Moldova, Montenegro, and Macedonia. He has taught and provided educational reform and curriculum advising to universities in Bulgaria, China, Russia, Mongolia, Taiwan, and Tajikistan.
Graduate Courses
Public Expenditure, Taxation, and Fiscal Incidence (ECON 971) - This course is part of a two-course doctoral-level sequence that covers the economics of the public sector. In this course, we cover public expenditure, taxation, and fiscal policy.
Fiscal Theory and Its Application (ECON 972) - This course is part of a two-course doctoral-level sequence that covers the economics of the public sector. In this course we cover aspects of the influence of fiscal instruments on economic growth, employment and labor supply, risk-taking and portfolios, government debt and deficits, and international trade.
Undergraduate Courses
Public Finance (ECON 471) - In this course we cover microeconomic analysis of policy issues in public finance. The public sector is a major component of the economy, accounting for thirty-five percent of U.S. GDP, and in this course we consider the important issues of government expenditure programs and tax systems. We will examine governments at all levels; federal, state, and local. We will also consider international aspects of public finance comparing U.S. government tax and spending policies with those of other countries. A blend of economic theory and empirical policy analysis is used throughout the course.
Teaching Interests
Journal articles co-authored with graduate students (since 2000):
- Anderson, John E., Seth H. Giertz, and Shafiun N. Shimul “Reducing Property Taxes for Agriculture: Diffusion of Use-Value Assessment Policy across the United States.” Land Use Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106298
- Li, Wenjing, John E. Anderson, and James R. Schmidt. 2020. “The Effect of Deed Taxes on Real Estate Prices in China.” Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, 4(2): 317-341. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41685-020-00147-7
- Park, Junpyo, John Anderson, and Eric Thompson. 2019. “Land-Use, Crop Choice, and Proximity to Ethanol Plants.” LAND 8(8): 118. https://doi.org/10.3390/land8080118
- Anderson, John E., and Shafiun N. Shimul. 2018. “State and Local Property, Income, and Sales Tax Elasticity: Estimates from Dynamic Heterogeneous Panels.” National Tax Journal 71(3): 521-546. http://doi.org/10.17310/ntj.2018.3.04
- Chen, Yunmin, Brian Chi-ang Lin, and John E. Anderson. 2016. “Environmental Sustainability, and the Greened Samuelson Rule.” Journal of Economic Surveys, Volume 30 (3): 482-496. https://doi.org/10.1111/joes.12161
- Reprinted as, “Environmental Sustainability and the Greened Samuelson Rule,” Chapter 5 in Environmental Economics and Sustainability, edited by Brian Chi-ang Lin and Siqi Zheng, Wiley Blackwell, Oxford, UK, 2017.
- Anderson, John E., and Mahbubul Kabir. 2007. “Public Education Cost Frontier Models: Theory and an Application.” Journal of Education Research, Volume 1, Number 1 (January), pp. 93-118.
- Anderson, John E., Atrayee Ghosh Roy, and James R. Schmidt. 2006. “Housing Tax Deductions and Single-Family Housing Demand.” International Journal of Applied Economics, Volume 3, Number 1 (March).
- Anderson, John E., Atrayee Ghosh Roy, and Paul Shoemaker. 2003. “Confidence Intervals for the Suits Index.” National Tax Journal, Volume 56, Number 1, Part 1 (March), pp. 81-90.
- Anderson, John E., and Atrayee Ghosh Roy. 2001. “Eliminating Housing Tax Preferences: A Distributional Analysis.” Journal of Housing Economics, Volume 10, Number 1 (March), pp. 41-58.
- Anderson, John E., and Marlon F. Griffing. 2000. “Use-Value Assessment Tax Expenditures in Urban Areas.” Journal of Urban Economics, Volume 48, Number 3 (November), pp. 443-452.
- Anderson, John E., and Marlon F. Griffing. 2000. “Measuring Use-Value Assessment Tax Expenditures.” Assessment Journal, January-February, pp. 25-37.