Public Economics

2019/2020

Учебный год

ENG

Обучение ведется на английском языке

5

Кредиты

Кто читает:

Департамент государственного администри­рования

Статус:

Курс обязательный

Когда читается:

2-й курс, 4 модуль

Преподаватель

Заостровцев Андрей Павлович

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course in Public Economics covers basic issues including a role of government in modern market economies, market failures and public goods, public choice, equity-efficiency trade-offs, taxation principles, public expenditure programmes, fiscal federalism. It combines theoretical models with empirical evidence. Objectives and instruments of public policies are demonstrated with examples of voting and rent-seeking, behavior of bureaucracy, models of taxation design, welfare state problems, including healthcare, pension systems and other social endowments.

Learning Objectives

• Formation of the knowledge of basic ideas and concepts of public economics
• Acquaintance with the main problems of modern public policy and the ways to solve them
• Formation of the ability to discuss and defend one’s own point of view on public policy issues

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Students are able to explain the nature and economic effects of public goods with regard to the public policies
• Students are able to explain the nature and economic effects of externalities and formulate policy with regard to their corrections
• Students are able to explain and assess the properties and the consequences of majority voting, voting rules, log-rolling, rent-seeking behavior, corruption and bureaucracy.
• Students are able to classify taxes, to explain and calculate tax incidence and deadweight loss, to formulate the Ramsey rule and determine the problem of optimal taxation
• Students are able to explain social welfare functions, adverse selection and moral hazard, to classify the types of social insurance and determine their main problems.
• Students are able to compare money and in-kind transfers, explain targeted entitlements and incentives, determine sustainability of intergenerational income transfers and analyze the problems for of health care and health insurance.

Course Contents

• Public Goods
  Types of Public Goods. Properties of public goods. Voluntary personal payments for public goods. Weakest-link and volunteer-type public goods. An efficient economy with public and private goods. Information and Public Goods. Can governments solve the information problem? The Clarke tax and truthful self-reporting.
• Externalities
  Externalities. Private resolution attributes of externalities Private ownership solutions. The Coase theorem. Resolution of externalities through personal behavior. Public Policies and Externalities. The case for government. The means of public policy Political decisions. Global externalities and international agreements
• Public Choice:
  The Median Voter and Majority Voting. Voting and efficient public spending. The Condorcet winner and efficient public-spending proposals.. Logrolling. Political Competition. Direct and representative democracy . Political competition with a single issue . Political competition with multiple issues. Systems of voting and the Condorcet winner Rent-seeking. Rent-seeking and non-productive behavior. Rent-seeking and social losses. Models of rent-seeking behavior. Corruption.Bureaucracy. The budget-maximizing bureaucrat: Niskanen model and extensions. The slack-maximizing bureaucrat. The government as Leviathan
• Taxation
  Who pays a tax?. Tax incidence. The excess burden of taxation. Tax revenue and the Laffer curve.. Optimal Taxation. The Ramsey rule for efficient taxation. The equal-sacrifice principle for socially just taxation. Optimal income taxation. Political and social objectives. Tax Evasion and the Shadow Economy. Tax evasion as free riding. The behavior of the tax authorities.
• Social Justice
  Social Justice and Insurance. Uncertain incomes and the demand for insurance. Social welfare functions and social insurance contracts. Choice of social insurance behind a veil of ignorance. Adverse selection and time inconsistency. Moral Hazard. Moral hazard and insurance. Moral hazard and adverse selection. Public policy responses to moral hazard. Social Justice without Government. Altruism and charity.
• Entitlements
  The Attributes and Consequences of Entitlements. Money and in-kind transfers. Targeted entitlements and incentives. Is equal opportunity achievable? An intergenerational social contract. Sustainability of intergenerational income transfers. Personal voluntary provision for retirement. Transition from intergenerational dependence. The Entitlement to Health Care and Health Insurance. The problem of containing health costs. The market for health insurance. Socialized medicine. Healthcare choices

Assessment Elements

• Homework
  Homework includes preparing a report on a selected topic and presenting it at a seminar.
• test
• Examination test
  Экзамен проводится в письменной форме на on-line платформе Coursera. Курс «Экономика государственного хозяйствования» (на англ. языке). Адрес курса: https://ru.coursera.org/learn/public-economics Преподаватель Leonid Polishchuk (National Research University - Higher School of Economics, Department of Applied Economics). Критерии оценивания: Оценка за финальный экзамен в свидетельстве о прохождении курса в пересчете на 10-балльную систему (процент правильных ответов переводится в 10-балльную шкалу; округление по правилам арифметики, например, 75% = 7,5 балла  8 баллов). Оценка за финальный на платформе Coursera.не является блокирующей. Она входит в итоговую оценку за курс с коэффициентом 0,4. Если накопительная оценка и оценка за экзамен на платформе Coursera не позволяют в сумме выставить положительную оценку (меньше 3,5), то пересдача предполагает вторичное прохождение курса на платформе Coursera.

Interim Assessment

• Interim assessment (4 module)
  0.4 * Examination test + 0.3 * Homework + 0.3 * test

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Hillman, A. L. (2019). Public Finance and Public Policy. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.b.cup.cbooks.9781107136311
• Hindriks, J., & Myles, G. D. (2013). Intermediate Public Economics (Vol. Second edition). Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=564828

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Goodin, R., Moran, M., & Rein, M. (2015). The Oxford handbook of public policy. Australia, Australia/Oceania: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.3A27B9A0
• Zahariadis, N. (2016). Handbook of Public Policy Agenda Setting. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1409252