Duration: 3 hours per week - 13 weeks [ECTS: 6]

Course outline

The aim of the public economics course is to introduce the student to the basic issues of public economics and familiarize them with its concepts. In particular, the student will understand the subject of public economics, which studies the necessity, limits and consequences of government intervention in a market economy

In particular we will study introductory concepts and tools of positive and normative analysis, which will allow the understanding of public goods, externalities, the role and importance of the structure of public expenditures and tax burdens in terms of their efficiency and fair distribution and the size of the state.

Learning objectives

Upon completion of the lectures and successful completion of the course, students should:

• Understand the importance of the limits and consequences of government interventionism
• Know the meaning and importance of optimal provision of public goods
• To understand the meaning and consequences of externalities and how they can be dealt with by private means but also by government intervention
• Evaluate and interpret the efficiency and fairness of a tax system
• To develop basic models of analysis of public economics issues