The aim of the course is to provide the student with the background essential to analyse the public sector activities. The course offers insights into the reasons and scope of the public sector activities. Special attention is devoted to the analysis of the public revenues and to their economic effects. The course also focuses on budgetary procedures and on the dynamics of debts and deficits. At the end of the course the students will be able to understand the reasons for government's intervention (allocation, stabilization and redistribution). They will understand how the public budget is decided on and which are the principal steps and problems connected with budgetary policy. Students will understand the basic tax instruments and their economic (tax incidence and welfare effects). Students will be provided with the essential notions regarding the fiscal activities of local governments, with a particular focus on the impact of intergovernmental grants.
 

The program is composed by two parts.

First part:

• The market failures and the role of the public sector
• The theory of public choices and voting systems
• The national budget (briefly)

Second part:

• Taxation (definition; distortive effects; taxes in Italy)
• The theory of public debt
• Fiscal federalism

Economics (micro)

• Knowledge and understanding: At the end of the course, students will be able to understand the main issues related to the public sector and public finance. In particular, they will be able to critically assess the principal models with respect to taxation, public debt formation and intergovernmental relationship. Students will be able to use these models for analyzing the economic patterns and interpreting what happens in real economic world, and actively participating to the economic and public finance debate.
• Applying knowledge and understanding: Thanks to the course attendance and after passing the exam, the students will be able to deal with a variety of tools to analyze economic and fiscal information and understand autonomously the evolution of the main public finance variables as well as the effect of fiscal and institutional reforms in our country. Students will be able to assess official economic reports with particular attention to the policy implication. They will be able also to analyze national accounts data to understand the macroeconomic dynamics involving the public sector into the economy.
• Making judgements: the student will be able to gather information and data on the subjects of the course so to make autonomous judgements.
• Communication skills: students will develop reasoning skills on issues related to the subjects of the course.
• Learning skills: students will gain in-depth knowledge of the main models of taxation, public debt and fiscal decentralization.  This will allow them to advance their knowledge in economics and prepare them for more advanced courses.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Tutorials

Teaching

Frontal lectures and tutorials. The lectures will be developed by following the textbook scheme. Other teaching materials (e.g., PPT and PDF file) used during the lectures will be part of the program and will be made available in the website of the course.

Attendance

The participation in the lecture classes and tutorials is highly recommended.

Course books

• P. Bosi, Corso di Scienza delle Finanze, 8a edizione, Il Mulino, Blogna. Capitoli da fare: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Assessment

Written exam. It is composed by a mix of open-ended questions, exercises and closed-ended questions for a total of 6 questions. The maximum score is 32 points that corresponds to the grade 30/30 with honors. The time to do the written exam is one hour.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Teaching

The same for attending students

Attendance

The same for attending students

Course books

The same for attending students

Assessment

The same for attending students

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

The student can take the exam in English. References: H. Rosen, Public Finance, The Mcgraw-Hill Series in Economics.