For the past several years I have fulfilled my contractual teaching
obligations at the School of Public Policy and Management, Heinz
College, Carnegie Mellon University, by teaching public finance and
macro-economics in the fall, and public expenditure analysis and
regional finance and education policy in the spring. Each is a full
semester or 12 unit course. Students are typically professional
masters students at the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management
who are interested in pursuing public sector careers. Carnegie Mellon
undergraduates and doctoral students have on occasion also taken these courses.

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Additionally, I have periodically taught principles of economics,
governmental and school accounting, and state and local finance, as
well as supervised independent studies on a variety of topics, and
supervised doctoral dissertations on a mutually interested basis with
doctoral students. 

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My general approach to educating professional masters students is to
combine the pertinent theory of the course domain along with an
explanation of relevant institutions/laws at the international,
national, regional and local levels, as well as personal anecdotes
based on my own public policy experiences at the federal, state, and
local levels. Each course requires at least 5 individual and group
problem sets which are designed to require students to combine theory
to analyze real world problems through the manipulation and
statistical analysis of significant administrative data with SAS
and/or Stata and/or Excel.  Tutorials on SAS and Stata are offered to
provide basic tools. Extra credit problem sets are typically offered to enable
students to do better in the course.

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Courses are taught in a lecture-discussion format in English with considerable
emphasis on student role-playing to address and solve real problems.
Students are expected to at least read daily the front page of the
Wall Street Journal to keep track of political/economic/international
relations events that can be analyzed through the lens of the course
they are taking. The explanation of complex financial transaction
is effected through the use of "Strauss Bucks" which currently is
denominated in $100 Trillion currency notes. Course management is
accomplished through the continued use of Blackboard 9.1.

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A course grade is based on problem set performance, performance on one or
two mid-term short essay examinations and an short-essay final, and
class participation. Attendance is mandatory, non-attendance results
in significant grade penalties, and unusually clear rules for student
classroom conduct are proscribed in the detailed course syllabus. For
example, disruptive students are typically removed from the classroom. 

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Below, the general course content in my fall and spring courses is
described, along with the nature of the required problem sets.