The aim of this course is to provide basic knowledge of government intervention into liberal economies, using a microeconomic approach, with regard to fundamental normative and positive issues of public expenditure. The focus is on economic analysis of public sector policies and services.

Contents of this course are:

- research questions, issues and methods of public finance and public economics;

- basic knowledge of microeconomics;

- market failures: issues of efficiency and equity;

- government intervention into the economy: instruments; socio-economic evaluations; pros and cons;

- public goods, externalities, and other issues of market inefficiency;

- collective choice and institutions;

- theoretical approaches to inequality and redistributive public policy;

- introduction to cost benefit analysis; 

- public expenditure and welfare state, especially education, social services, health care services, unemployment and  pension schemes;

- fiscal federalism.

Those established by the School/degree regulations.

At the end of this course, on the economic analysis of social services and public policies, students should be able to demonstrate basic knowledge and understanding of reasons and instruments of government intervention into liberal economies, especially with regard to the provision of social services (knowledge and understanding). Students should also be able to understand and discuss the fundamental pros and cons of government intervention, its limits and trade-offs (applying knowledge and understanding) . It is also expected that students will develop basic abilities to analyze and evaluate collective and social issues from the economics perspective (making judgements). Studens should be able to use technical economic language and communicate economic concepts and issues appropriately (communication skills). Students should be able to autonomously read texts, listen to discussions and think of economic policy matters (learning skills). 

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

During the course, it will be possible to sit for tests that shall provide students with a self-assessment opportunity before sitting for the final examination.

Teaching

Lectures, case studies and seminars.

Attendance

Not compulsory.

Course books

Students may choose one of these books:

P. Bosi (ed.), Corso di scienza delle finanze, il Mulino, 2023 (9^ ed.), chapter I, chapter II section 1 (pp. 87-103), chapter V excluding section 4 (pp. 310-328), chapter VIII (This book is recommended for students who attend lectures, in Italian);

H.S. Rosen, T. Gayer (with C. Rapallini), Scienza delle finanze, McGraw-Hill, 2023, appendice (appendix) and chapters 1, 3 to 8, 10 to 13, and 21 (This book is a translation of "Public finance");

J.E. Stiglitz, J.K. Rosengard, Economia del settore pubblico, 2018, F. Gastaldi e G. Pisauro (ed.), Hoepli, chapters 1 to 7, 9 to 12, and 20.1 to 20.4 (This book is a translation of "Economics of the Public Sector").

Assessment

Students will be given a written test, with open questions, in order to assess whether the learning objectives of this course are met, and to what extent. The written test will last 45 minutes and they can use graphs to explain and discuss the questions asked. 

Students can get up to 30 points on their written test, which is passed with 18 points. The number of points assigned to students will be based on degrees of their knowledge, ability to explain economic problems, the goodness of their answers, ability to use basic mathematical tools, and provision of examples. The first three criteria are the ones that will bear the most in their evaluation.

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

In order to provide the opportunity, for non-attending students, to compensate by self-study what is done during the lectures, the following materials are suggested to promote their full understanding:

H.S. Rosen, T. Gayer (with C. Rapallini), Scienza delle finanze, McGraw-Hill, 2023, appendix: the appendix of this course book contains fundamentals of microeconomics, and may be especially useful to non-attending students.

Students with a good command of the Italian language are invited to look at further details provided in Italian (for this course).