PUBLIC ECONOMICS

Public Economics (or Public Finance) deals with the formulation, execution and effects of government policy, or more generally with non-market mediated policies. This course provides basic knowledge of the functioning and the economic significance of the public sector with an emphasis on international aspects. Some of the topics to be dealt with in the course are: governmental decision-making on the national and international level, role and management of the state in times of globalization and transnational threats like global warming and international terrorism, important issues pertaining to government expenditure, taxation, and other activities (like public goods, international institutions, education, social security, health care), and mechanisms of political influence (elections and lobbying). These issues are analyzed from a normative –welfare economic– as well as from a positive –explanatory– perspective, with emphasis on the relevance and limitation of traditional economic theory.