Spring 2027

Analytical Public Finance

Analyzes public sector problems in education, urban areas, welfare, natural resources, and environment, applying economic analysis tools to domestic issues.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Rebecca Glawtschew2.9/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Rebecca Glawtschew

The course did not assign much homework, but students emphasized that attending lectures was necessary for success. Weekly problem sets and chapter study guides served as the main preparation for tests.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Evaluate the circumstances under which government intervention in the economy is necessary.

  • Analyze the various policy approaches the government employs to intervene in the economy.

  • Assess the costs, benefits, and unintended consequences of different policy approaches.

  • Compare and contrast the primary sources of public revenue and major expenditure programs at the federal, state, and local levels.

  • Critically examine policy debates about social insurance, redistributive programs, and taxation using evidence-based reasoning.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

ECON 301 or 311

ECON 441

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

Rebecca Glawtschew

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.78/5 from 92 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 3.7/5 raw quality · 3.4/5 difficulty · 7 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Rebecca Glawtschew

Rebecca Glawtschew taught with an extremely organized Canvas site featuring chapter-by-chapter study guides, practice problems, and clear exam expectations. Students described her as approachable and knowledgeable, with lively lectures and abundant resources that made the material comprehensible, while one student noted she was a tough grader who did not award partial credit for rounding errors.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.11 GPA, 48.3% A/AB (n=87 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.05 GPA, 44.7% A/AB (n=85 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.11 GPA, 50.0% A/AB (n=84 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Jesse Gregory

Past students of historical instructor Jesse Gregory found the material relevant to policy analysis and clear about exam expectations, though they disagreed on lecture quality. Some described lectures as dry and unorganized, while others appreciated the clarity. The workload typically included six homework assignments, two midterms, and a final exam.

JESSE GREGORY is recorded teaching in Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Spring 2019, Fall 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

REBECCA GLAWTSCHEW is recorded teaching in Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 960
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 240
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 240

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Rebecca Glawtschew

Rebecca Glawtschew teaches analytical public finance with organized Canvas resources and approachable instruction. Students described her lectures as lively and insightful, noting she keeps the material engaging.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 3.33 GPA, 60.5% A/AB (n=38 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.05 GPA, 44.7% A/AB (n=85 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.11 GPA, 50.0% A/AB (n=84 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Rebecca Glawtschew

The course did not assign much homework, but students emphasized that attending lectures was necessary for success. Weekly problem sets and chapter study guides served as the main preparation for tests.

Past student reviews · Rebecca Glawtschew

One student appreciated Glawtschew's clear explanations and interesting examples, noting she was a tough grader who gave no partial credit for rounding errors. Another student expressed strong dissatisfaction with the professor.

Topics

  • Domestic public sector issues: education, urban areas, welfare, natural resources, environment.
  • Government intervention and policy approaches.
  • Public revenue sources and expenditure programs at federal, state, and local levels.
  • Social insurance, redistributive programs, and taxation.

Skills

  • Evaluate government intervention necessity and analyze policy approaches.
  • Assess costs, benefits, and unintended consequences of policies.
  • Compare public revenue sources and expenditure programs across government levels.
  • Critically examine policy debates on social insurance and taxation using evidence-based reasoning.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

5 earlier forecasts · 0.23 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records
ECON 441 · Spring 2027

Analytical Public Finance

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:296:005620",
    "course_id": "ECON 441",
    "course_uid": "course_acbe78395542e3fcde444a85",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "005620",
    "source_subject_id": "296",
    "title": "Analytical Public Finance",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "662dc3cf9aaf53aed40620f1dee79334e5387a649bec70c15eec0aa8fe353a19",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}