Public Economics

School of Business and Economics

Public Economics

Full course description

This course provides basic knowledge of the functioning and the economic significance of the public sector with an emphasis on international aspects. Some of the topics to be dealt with in the course are: governmental decision-making on the national and international level, role and management of the state in times of globalisation and transnational threats like global warming and international terrorism, important issues pertaining to government expenditure, taxation, and activities (like public goods, international institutions, education, social security, health care), fiscal federalism (with an eye on European integration), and mechanisms of political influence (elections and lobbying). Those issues will be analysed from a normative - welfare economic - as well as from a positive - explanatory - perspective, with emphasis on the relevance and limitation of theory.

Course objectives

Acquiring a structured insight into the important functions of the state in modern market economies
Learning about the functioning and performance of the state and its interactions with markets
Understand and critically reflect recent developments and discussions concerning issues of the public sector like health insurance, taxation, pension systems.

Prerequisites

Students who enroll in this course should have knowledge and understanding of mathematics and microeconomics (in particular game theory, industrial organization, general equilibrium theory), at a level comparable to the second year economics course microeconomics. Exchange students need economics as a major and an advanced level of English to enroll in this course.

Public Economics