Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
---|---|---|---|
2500259 Political Science and Public Management | OB | 3 | 2 |
Having passed a basic Economics course, and particularly, having a basic training in microeconomics, is a prerequisite to register for this course. It is also highly advisable to have attended the "Propedeutic Course on Quantitative Methods”.
- Learning the foundations of public intervention.
- Relating public intervention to voting mechanisms and decision-making in the public sector.
- Approaching the economic theory of democracy and the economic theory of bureaucracy.
- Achieving a theoretical knowledge of economic behaviour, incentives and institutions giving rise to some collective outcomes.
- Achieving a theoretical knowledge of public finance and income redistribution.
- Accessing the relevant information on goals and instruments of economic policy and public sector economics.
- Obtaining and applying the terminology and specific techniques of analysis in economic policy and public sector economics.
- Appraising social policies (social security, health, education, demographic policy and migration)
The general framework of the theory of economic policy and public sector economics is presented. Particular attention is devoted to market failure and the case for public intervention, as well as government failure that can result from this intervention.
1. The formation of economic policy: Basic conceptual framework of goals, instruments and policies.
2. The formation of social preferences: from methodological individualism to institutionalism. Basic elements of Welfare Economics.
3. Institutions and markets: study of the basic working of a market economy, market and government failures, transaction costs and property rights
4. Decision-making rules: unanimity rule and majority rule, Arrow’s theorem, median vote theorem, Lindahl equilibrium.
5. Analysis of social policies: social security, health economics, education economics, demographic economics and immigration, family economics.
Theoretical lectures will focus on the more important issues in each topic, referring to the relevant references in aspects not requiring their development in class.
The objective of practical classes is that of applying the issues discussed in theoretical lectures to the situation in Spain and other countries or regions. Practical classes will be developed with working groups.
Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
---|---|---|---|
Type: Directed | |||
Case studies | 15 | 0.6 | 5, 1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 13, 20, 18 |
Lectures | 30 | 1.2 | 5, 1, 6, 4, 13, 16, 17, 18, 7 |
Type: Supervised | |||
Tutorials | 7.5 | 0.3 | 6, 8, 13, 19, 18, 21 |
Type: Autonomous | |||
Study, preparation and other activities | 90 | 3.6 | 5, 1, 2, 6, 4, 14, 13, 18 |
Evaluation of the course will be on a continuous assessment basis with the following criteria:
In case plagiarism is detected, the grade assigned to the activity will be 0.
The instructor will set the dates along the first week of the course. Students will strictly respect the above-mentioned dates. Otherwise, they will not be evaluated.
To pass the subject the following conditions must be met:
In accordance with article 112.3 of the UAB Academic Regulations, a make-up exam will be scheduled by the Faculty. This exam is addressed to those students who have taken at least the two written exams, and who have obtained a final grade (weighted average of the set of evaluation activities) not lower than 3.5, but below 5.0.
In accordance with article 117.2 of the UAB Academic Regulations, the evaluation of those students who have been enrolled before, may consist of a single synthesis examination. The students who wish to be evaluated this way should contact the professor at the beginning of the semester.
Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Two written exams and two case studies | 30%, 30%, 20%, 20% | 7.5 | 0.3 | 5, 1, 2, 6, 3, 4, 8, 14, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 20, 15, 16, 17, 19, 18, 21, 22, 23, 7 |
Rosen, H. and T. Gayer. 2008. Public Finance. McGraw-Hill.
Friedman and Friedman. 1980. Free to Choose. Harcourt.
Harvey, D. 2005. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.
Madden and Marcuse. 2016. In Defense of Housing. Verso
Harvey, D. 2010. A Companion to Marx’s Capital. Verso
McConnell, Brue and Macpherson. 2017. Contemporary Labor Economics. McGraw-Hill.
Graeber, D. 2018. Bullshit jobs. Simon & Schuster.
Federici. 2012. Revolution at Point Zero. Housework, Reproduction and Feminist Struggle. PM Press.
Stiglitz. 2000. Economics of the public sector. Norton & Company.
Piketty. 2014. Capital in the XXIst Century. Harvard University Press.
Zucman. 2015. The Hidden Wealth of Nations. The University of Chicago Press.
Samuelson and Nordhaus. 2010. Economics. McGraw-Hill.
Skidelsky. 2018. Money and Government. Yale University Press.
Mazzucato. 2014. The Entrepreneurial State. Anthem Press.
Rodrik. 2012. The Globalization Paradox. Oxford University Press.
Kindleberger. 2005. Manias, Panics and Crashes. John Wiley & Sons.
Stiglitz. 2016. The Euro. Norton & Company.