AMES 23A10 - A (critical) introduction to Economic Public Policy Analysis

Course Description

This course provides an overview of the role of the government, blending theory with empirical evidence. It is taught through practical applications, focusing on policies particularly concerned with themes such as environmental sustainability and climate change, health economics, wellbeing, and inequality. A strong emphasis is placed on practical applications at various scales: local/regional, national, and international. The course begins with a discussion of the theoretical rationale behind government interventions in the economy, historicizing changing modes of intervention. A second part is dedicated to government activities motivated by different market failures, including public policies designed to reduce inequality in society (e.g. minimum wage), the provision of public goods such as health care services and education, regulation in the face of ill-defined property rights (e.g. road congestion and climate change). These concrete applications are then analysed in terms of strength and weaknesses, allowing students to evaluate the effects of these models. Lastly, new forms of industrial policy and their tools (development banks) are discussed.

Enseignants

Matthias THIEMANN,Simona MONTAGNANA,Dora PIROSKA

Type

Cours magistral seul

Language of tuition

English

Semester

Spring 2024-2025

Course validation

Midterm (40%): 2 hour exam in class Final Exam (60%) 3 hours exam in class

Lectures conseillées / Recommended readings

Lectures principales / Main readings

1. Elizabeth Popp-Berman. Thinking like an economist. Princeton: Princeton University Press

Disponible / Available

Hacker, Jacob S. « Thinking Like an Economist: How Efficiency Replaced Equality in U.S. Public Policy. By Elizabeth Popp Berman. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022. 344p. $35.00 cloth », Perspectives on politics. 2022, vol.20 no 4. p. 1449‑1450.

2. Mariana Mazzucato. 2013. The entrepreneurial state. London: Penguin POress

3. Gernot Wagner and M. Weitzmann.2015. Climate Shock-the economic consequences of a hotter planet. Princeton: Princeton University Press

Disponible / Available

Wagner, Gernot et Martin Lawrence Weitzman. Climate shock : the economic consequences of hotter planet. Princeton Oxford : Princeton University Press. 2015.

4. Jean Hindriks Gareth D Myles, (2013), Intermediate Public Economics, MIT press 2nd ed.

Disponible / Available

Hindriks, Jean, and Gareth D. Myles. Intermediate Public Economics. 2nd edition, the MIT press, 2013.

5. Le Grand J and Smith S (2008), The Economics of Social Problems, Palgrave Macmillan

Disponible / Available

Le Grand, Julian, Carol Propper, et Sarah Smith. The economics of social problems. Fourth ed. Basingstoke New York : Palgrave Macmillan. 2008.

Lectures secondaires / Main readings

6. Cowen & Tabarrok (2024), Modern Principles of Economics, Chapter 21: Economics, Ethics and Public Policy.

7. Mertens, D., M. Thiemann and P. Volberding (eds). The Reinvention of Development Banking in the European Union. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Disponible / Available

Mertens, Daniel, et al. The Reinvention of Development Banking in the European Union : Industrial Policy in the Single Market and the Emergence of a Field. Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2021.