PUBLIC ECONOMICS

The module introduces to the economic analysis of motivations, objectives, scope and instruments of public intervention, regarding both expenditure and tax policies

Basic knowledge of micro and macroeconomics

Knowledge and understanding: the student – through course attendance and interactive teaching – will gain a not formalized knowledge of public economics. He/she will understand the fundamental ideas in this area, the main policy instruments and the most important institutions. Applying knowledge and understanding: The module intends to provide an understanding of motivations and effects of public policies to enable a better design and management of these policies in a national and international context. These hard and soft competences will be developed and tested through a continuous interaction during the lectures and through the platform Luiss Learn, where multimedia contents will be regularly uploaded. Making judgements: The student’s ability of making critical and independent evaluation of the objectives and instrument of public policies will be developed by a critical evaluation of the results of policy instruments, making use in some case of empirical studies. These abilities will be verified in the final exam, where the student’s performance will be evaluated also in terms of his/her ability to provide a critical evaluation of his/her arguments Communication skills: The student will develop the ability to talk and write having an audience, keeping the audience interest alive and making sure that the message sent is clear and effective. This will be obtained through the interactive teaching and the possibility of participating to the interaction on Luiss Learn. Learning skills: By studying the public policy instruments and the analysis of the by suggested readings, the student learns to critically assess and, in case, to contribute to the design and management of public policies.

The course is divided in 4 sections: 1) scope and instruments of public policies 2) market failure and public expenditure 3) taxation: general principles 4) taxation in Italy

Rosen, H. S. e T. Gayer, 2018. Scienza delle finanze. McGraw-Hill (V edizione). Additional readings will be made available on Luiss Learn

Teaching methods will include traditional lectures, seminar presentations, class discussion and individual/group homework.

The assessment of student will take place, during the course, with traditional written exams, thorough a midterm exam and a final exam, at the end of the course. The midterm exam concerns the first part of the course programme. The test will have a duration of 1h and will be composed of two essay-type questions, one with an answer with no word limit and one with an answer with a maximum 300 words limit. Each question will be given a grade expressed in thirtieths. The final grade is the weighted average of the two grades, with the weight to the answer with no word limit equal to 60%. The final exam will concern the second part of the course programme. The exam has the same structure as the midterm exam. In the exam the student will be required to show that he/she knows and understands the basic concepts of the subject, that he/she is able to critically evaluate the problems and the policies analysed and that he/she is able to illustrate his/her arguments with clarity, rigour and brevity. The midterm exam and the final exam each have a weight of 40% of the final grade.The remaining 20% is equally divided between to the evaluation of the participation to the seminars and to the class discussion.

Upon request

Yes, both with respect to environmental sustainability and economic sustainability