Public Finance (9545.1)

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Unit Outlines

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• Flexible and Self Paced Period 11, 2016, SELF-PACED, BRUCE (149944) - View
• Flexible and Self Paced Period 10, 2016, SELF-PACED, BRUCE (150124) - View
• Flexible and Self Paced Period 9, 2016, SELF-PACED, BRUCE (150282) - View
• Semester 2, 2016, ONLINE, BRUCE (150754) - View
• Flexible and Self Paced Period 7, 2016, SELF-PACED, BRUCE (150521) - View
• Winter Term, 2016, ONLINE, BRUCE (152454) - View
• Flexible and Self Paced Period 6, 2016, SELF-PACED, BRUCE (152767) - View
• Semester 1, 2016, ONLINE, BRUCE (155458) - View
• Summer Semester 2015/16, ONLINE, BRUCE (155459) - View
• Flexible and Self Paced Period 8, 2015, SELF-PACED, BRUCE (137973) - View
• Semester 2, 2015, ONLINE, BRUCE (146369) - View
• Flexible and Self Paced Period 6, 2015, SELF-PACED, BRUCE (137971) - View

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Syllabus

Public Finance rests at the intersection of two disciplines: Public Economics and Public Choice. Public Economics deals with issues of social optimality: how much of a good (or ill) does a society desire (or tolerate), and how do we incentivise producers and consumers to attain that amount? Public economics concerns itself with externalities, which are costs that are borne by persons not involved in a market transaction. There are both positive and negative externalities; public economists want to know how we get more of the good and less of the bad. Public choice is the field of economics that looks into the behaviour of voters, politicians, and bureaucrats and studies how they choose given different policy institutions. The field of Public Finance studies the interaction between these two disciplines.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Define public finance terms such as "public good", "free-rider", "median voter theorem", "externality", "pigouvian taxes", and "Lindahl tax". Where appropriate, students will be able to include a graphical representation of these concepts in their definition of these terms;

2. Construct simple economic models related to public finance, including the Consumer and Producer surplus models and the Keynesian aggregate demand model;

3. Graphically describe the effects of taxation on labour supply decisions, at both the individual and national levels; and

4. Explain the political economy aspects of public finance, particularly as they relate to rent seeking and lobbying, as well as the strategies that can be taken to combat rent-seeking behaviours, as well as other more general government failures.

Assessment Items

Prerequisites

None