ADVANCED PUBLIC ECONOMICS

Curriculum ECONOMICS - QEM / ECONOMIA E FINANZA

The course attendee:
- will learn about fundamental theories of economic development and their policy implications;
- will learn about the economic and spatial consequences of key public policy interventions;
- will learn and will be able to apply advanced techniques of counterfactual policy evaluation;

A written examination as well as an oral presentation will evaluate the knowledge acquired by the students.

The aim of the course is to allow students to conduct apprehensible analyses of the role of the public sector in the promotion of economic development. It combines insights from Public Economics, Development Economics, Spatial Economics and Economic Geography. The first part of the course will be dedicated to an overview of key theories of economic growth and development. Building on that, in the following lectures the course will discuss different approaches to public policy intervention in the economy, in line with the theoretical conceptualisations introduced in the first lectures. This section of the course will also discuss the spatial implications of economic policies, distinguishing between place-neutral and place-based policies. Particular attention will be given to the largest transnational place-based policy, i.e. EU Cohesion Policy. The concluding pillar of the course will focus on empirical methods for public policy analysis. It will discuss the empirical rationale behind the use of counterfactuals for policy evaluation and present some state-of-the-art quasi-experimental techniques (Regression Discontinuity Design, Difference-in-Differences, Synthetic Control Method).

Macroeconomics I; Applied Econometrics I

I. Theories of Economic Growth & Development
- Solow Model
- Endogenous Growth Model
- New Institutional Economics
- New Economic Geography
II. Public Policy for Economic Development
- Infrastructure policy
- Innovation policy
- Spatial policies: Place-Based vs. Spatially-Neutral
- EU Cohesion Policy
III. Public Policy Analysis – Counterfactual Evaluation Methods
- Introduction to Counterfactual Policy Evaluation
- Economic Impact of Place-Based Policies
- Political Implications of Place-Based Policies
- Application of DiD, RDD and Synthetic control method

The material for the course is covered by chapters in:

Romer, D. (2012). Advanced Macroeconomics, fourth edition, McGraw-Hill.
Angrist, J. D., & Pischke, J. S. (2014). Mastering' metrics: The path from cause to effect. Princeton University Press.

The majority of reading material for the course is made of academic papers from scientific journals.These will be avialable on the webpage for the course will be active on the e-learning platform at moodle.unive.it. The page will contain references for the additional readings, details on the weakly program and lectures and other materials.

Students’ assessment is based on:
- a written exam paper (85% of the final mark) which contains (2h, closed-book): A) two questions related to the empirical methods learnt in the course; B) two essay-based open-questions to be chosen out of 4.
- an oral presentation (15% of the final mark) to be done in class, on a scientific paper to be chosen among a list proposed by the lecturer.

The course follows a conventional teaching approach, based on lectures and discussions. At least one session of empirical applications will be done at the end of the lecturing period.

English

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Cities, infrastructure and social capital" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development