Two - Year Master Degree in Economics

PUBLIC ECONOMICS AND FINANCE

PUBLIC ECONOMICS AND FINANCE

Academic year 2023/2024

Sommario del corso

• Course objectives
• Results of learning outcomes
• Program
• Course delivery
• Learning assessment methods
• Class schedule
• Teaching tools
• Course card

Course objectives

This course examines the role of government in modern private economies, focusing on the topic of market failures. Under ideal conditions, competition promotes economic efficiency, leaving little role for the public sector. In some circumstances, however, private markets fail and government intervention to restore efficiency may be desirable. Market failures to be analyzed include public good provision, externalities, imperfect competition, and asymmetric information.

The course is structured to encourage students to develop relevant transferable skills.

Results of learning outcomes

The course will provide students with advanced knowledge of standard public economic theory and empirical public economics. After attending the course, the student is expected:

• to be able to manage quantitative microeconomic tools to analyze market failure problems and related government interventions; 
• to have notions on how public economic theory can be fruitfully applied for undertaking sound empirical analysis of policy-making concerning public good provision, market power control, and environmental regulation;
• to learn how to effectively organize ideas mainly in written form, by summarizing, discussing, and criticizing the results of academic research in public economics;
• to understand the main building blocks of public economic theory and acquire the toolkit for further research in public economics.
• to understand the main empirical strategies aimed at studying public economic theory.

Program

Public economics and economic efficiency:
- Pareto-efficiency of competition and First Theorem of Welfare Economics
- Lump-sum transfers and Second Theorem of Welfare Economics 

Departures from efficiency:
- Public goods
- Club goods and local public goods
- Externalities
- Imperfect competition
- Asymmetric Information

Course delivery

Upfront lectures and student presentations.

Lectures will be based on the textbook and on current research in public economics. Students will have to choose and present a research paper in about 30 minutes (the provided list of papers depends on the number of enrolled students). 

I will assign homework assignments to students. They could deliver them weekly to obtain extra points on the exam (max 10 points out of 100)

Learning assessment methods

The exam will be in written form. The exam will consist of 4 questions divided into subpoints, each subpoint will contribute to the final score of 100. The questions will involve applied exercises, obviously on the topics and papers covered in class. Grades will be rescaled consistent with the Italian grading system.

Questions cover all the material, including the research papers presented by the students (I will randomly select 6 papers at the end of the course and communicate the list on my webpage). 

On top of that, on a voluntary basis, students will present a public economics research paper, which is going to be part of their assessment. I invite these students to take the exam in the very first exam session. 

Class schedule

• Teaching material
• Exams and finals
• Class schedule
• Go to Moodle
• Register for the course
• Enrolled students
• Invia email agli studenti registrati
• Export table