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 analytical framework of economic policy and public sector theory is presented, explaining the market failures that motivate intervention and the public sector failures that may result from interventions.
Topics:
1- The formation of economic policy: basic conceptual framework of objectives, instruments and policies
2- The welfare economy and the role of the public sector. Efficiency and equity. The fundamental theorems of welfare economics.
3- Market failures: imperfect competition, imperfect information, public goods and externalities.
4- The distribution of income: different theories about the optimal distribution of income. The limits of redistribution: efficiency, equity and incentives
5- Analysis of social policies: social security, minimum income programs, health economics, education economics.
6- Public sector income: public revenues, types of taxes, introduction to tax analysis (desirable characteristics of the tax system; progressiveness, regressivity and proportionality).
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.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
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 |
Basic references:
Rosen, H. and T. Gayer, 2014. Public Finance. McGraw-Hill.
Stiglitz, J. and Rosengard, 2016. Economics of the publlic sector. Norton & Company.
Sanchez Andres, A. 2021. Introducció a la Política Económica. Available on-line for UAB users: https://bibcercador.uab.cat/permalink/34CSUC_UAB/1eqfv2p/alma991000847739706709
Other references:
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.
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.
No specific software is used, beyond a word processor and basic spreadsheets.