Public Economics – Bologna

• The Institute for Fiscal Studies “Mirrlees Review”, and in particular the volume “Tax by Design”, also provides lots of interesting material. This volume is available here: ifs.org.uk/publications/5353

Argomenti del programma: The course focuses on the role for government intervention in the economy (why should government intervene?), and on some principles that might guide the design of economic policy. As a particular example, the course may consider public policy regarding pensions / social security, and how this affects the decisions of individuals regarding consumption and saving.

Argomenti del programma: Part 1: Foundations Introduction to the economics of the welfare state Motives for government intervention in the economy Consumer surplus, producer surplus, and efficiency Public goods and common resources Externalities Social Insurance Part 2: Cost-benefit analysis Conceptual foundations of cost-benefit analysis Valuing impacts from observed behavior in markets Predicting and monetizing impacts Discounting future…

• Chapters 4, 16, 20 from CORE Economics textbook: freely available at: . Assigned readings and lecture material.

Argomenti del programma: 1 Introduction Reasons for government interventions. Market failures. Normative vs positive economics. Paternalism vs individual failures. 2 Fundamentals of Game Theory Strategic interactions. Social dilemmas. Social Norms. Behavioral game theory. Advices for policymakers. 3 Public Goods Environmental Public Games. Prisoner Dilemma with punishment. Threshold game with Public good. Chicken games.

• Please check for additional material on Virtuale (link on the right)

Argomenti del programma: Why study public finance (ch 1 Gruber) Market efficiency (ch. 3 Stiglitz) Public Goods (ch. 7 Gruber) Externalities (ch. 5-6 Gruber) Cost-benefit analysis (ch. 8 Gruber) Political economics (ch. 9 Gruber) Taxation: normative theory (ch. 17 Stiglitz) Income distribution and poverty (ch. 17 Gruber) Efficient Taxation (ch.