John Garen
BB&T Professor Emeritus of Economics
Gatton College of Business and Economics
University of Kentucky
Department of
Economics
Gatton College of Business
and Economics
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0034
Office: 223P Business and
Economics Building
Phone: (859) 257-3581
e-mail: jgaren@uky.edu
"Double Dividend: Better Outcomes
for Less Money," blog post, Commonwealth Education Opportunities of
Kentucky, March 2, 2022. https://www.ceoky.org/post/double-dividend.
“Helping Parents with Their Kids’ Schooling,” (with G. Houchens) January 2021, in the Louisville Courier-Journal, Kentucky
Today, The State Journal (Frankfort),
Kentucky New Era (Hopkinsville), The Times Leader (Caldwell County),
and The Times
Tribune (Corbin).
“Social Security and Medicare Spending Growth: Is It Just More Seniors or More Per Senior?,”
Feb. 2019 (published in Merrifield, John and Poulson, Barry (eds.),
A Fiscal Cliff: New Perspectives on the U.S. Federal Debt Crisis,
Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2020, pp. 261-274.). This
paper discusses the large increases in Social Security and Medicare
spending forecast to come in the near future and what might to done to
limit it.
“Competition and Certificate-of-Need Laws,” Pegasus Institute Policy Brief, January 2020.
This paper argues that competition is presumptively the best form of
organization for healthcare and that claims to the contrary do not have
validity.
“The Federal-Private Wage Differential: How Has It Evolved?,”
Fall 2020 (published in Applied Economics, 53(5), 2021, pp. 536-554
(with S. K. Choi)). This paper is a careful statistical
examination of federal worker pay compared to private sector pay from
1995 to 2017. We find that federal workers invariably are paid
more by an average of 13.2%, even after controlling for differences in
education, age, and other worker characteristics.
“The Growth of Government, Trust in Government, and Evidence on Their Coevolution,”
March 2018 (published in Journal of Economics and Finance, 43(3), July
2019, pp. 456-480 (with S. Gordon and J.R. Clark)). This paper shows
how the 50-year decline of trust in the federal government is
associated with the growth of federal spending and regulation.
Some Recent Teaching
ECO 365, Social Economic Organization, Spring 2020. Syllabus.
This course presents fundamental ideas underlying economic
organization, including capitalism and its critiques and alternatives.
ECO 401, Intermediate Microeconomic Theory, Fall 2018. Syllabus.
This course is the core course in microeconomic theory in the
undergraduate economics program. Its purpose is to develop a
deeper understanding of microeconomics and its applications.
Other Courses Taught
ECO 732, Labor Economics II (graduate), Spring 2015. Syllabus.
ECO 610, Managerial Economics (MBA), Fall 2014. Syllabus.
ECO 601, Advanced Microeconomic Theory (graduate), Fall 2013. Syllabus.
ECO 479, Public
Economics: SyllabusECO 401,
Intermediate
Microeconomic Theory: Syllabus
