PUBLIC ECONOMICS

The course is aimed at providing the students with the abilies to understand and critically analyse the role of the State in the Economy, both from a social and an economic point of view. Specifically, we wil focus on the impact of the public sector in the Economy and on the role of taxes to finace the public intervention.

1. Knowledge and comprehension skills:
1.1. understanding of the motivations of public intervention in the economy and how the equity-efficiency trade-off affects public choices of the Government with respect to the supply of goods and services and taxation.
1.2. understanding of the main characteristics of and solutions to market failures, which require the Government`s intervention in the economy: public goods, externalities and information asymmetries;
1.3. understanding the economic effects of taxes: tax incidence and the dead weight loss;

2. Applied knowledge and comprehension skills:
2.1. being able to apply the tools offered by welfare economics to determine the efficiency and equity of public interventions;
2.3. being able to identify the aim of the taxation system and to apply simple tax schedules to real case scenarios;
2.4. knowing how to solve basic problems including the emergence of externalities, asymmetric information and the provision of public goods.

3. Use of independent judgment:
3.1. to investigate the motivations of public intervention ad the trade-off between equity and efficiency;
3.2. to evaluate the effects of taxes on agents' economic choices;
3.3. to understand the limits of neoclassical economics in the analysis of public economics.

See the list of the exams that must have been already recorded in the following link: https://www.unive.it/web/en/4624/exams
Specifically, students must have already passed the Mircroeconomics exam.
EXCHANGE/ERASMUS STUDENTS: you must have already passed a course in microeconomics.

The public sector in a mixed economy
Pareto efficiency and the first theorem of welfare economics
Equity and the second theorem of welfare economics
Market failures: externalities
Market failures: public goods
Market failures: asymmetric information
Taxation: basic concepts
Tax incidence
The distortionary effect of taxation
Income distribution and Welfare Programmes

Required textbook:
Jonathan Gruber, Public Finance and Public Policy: any edition among the 5th, 6th or 7th is fine.

The textbook will be complemented by additional teaching material made available on the moodle page of the course.

The exam is written and closed-books. The exam contains four questions to be answered in 90 minutes, including 1 or 2 open questions on theory, also considering the ability to graphically analyse the economic phenomena investigated during the course (1 or 2 questions) and an exercise requiring calculations, similar to what has been done during the course.

A mock exam will be made available in the moodle page of the course.

The exam does not vary by student lecture attendance status. and grades are assigned according to the following criteria.
A. Grades within 18 and 22 will be assigned in case of:
- sufficient knolwledge of the main content of the program;
- limited ability to solve exercises;
- sufficient ability to understand the motivations and impact of the public intervention in the Economy, for example when considering market failures and redistributive needs.
B. Grades within 23 and 26 will be assigned in case of:
- discrete knolwledge of the main content of the program;
- discrete ability to solve exercises;
- discrete ability to understand the motivations and impact of the public intervention in the Economy, for example when considering market failures and redistributive needs.
C. Grades within 27 and 30 will be assigned in case of:
- good or optimal knolwledge of the main content of the program;
- good or optimal ability to solve exercises, elaborate and interpret its results, also providing a critical view on them
- optimal ability to understand and critically handle the motivations and impact of the public intervention in the Economy, for example when considering market failures and redistributive needs.
D. 30 cum laude is assigned when the student shows excellent abilities to handle the content of the program of the course, ability to solve exercise and critical thinking with respect to the role of the market and the State in the Economy.

The course is organized in:
a) lectures,
b) classroom exercises, including graphical analysis and experiments,
c) individual study.
Students are encouraged to attend classes in an active way.

English

Accessibility, Disability and Inclusion
Accommodation and support services for students with disabilities and students with specific learning impairments

Ca' Foscari abides by Italian Law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) regarding support services and accommodation available to students with disabilities. This includes students with mobility, visual, hearing and other disabilities (Law 17/1999), and specific learning impairments (Law 170/2010). If you have a disability or impairment that requires accommodations (i.e., alternate testing, readers, note takers or interpreters) please contact the Disability and Accessibility Offices in Student Services: disabilita@unive.it.

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development