Public choice

To provide knowledge needed to understand the economic underpinnings of non-market decision-making (knowledge and understanding); to prepare students to apply, in a critical and original fashion, what is learnt to the analysis of national and international policies (applying knowledge and understanding).

To stimulate students to exercise theif critical skills so that they are capable to identify the main assumptions of the theory, the instruments adopted and the limits of the theory. The goal is to make students able to integrate the knowledge acquired and apply it to the analysis of institutions and political processes, getting ready for the job market. To prepare student to interpret data to develop critical analysis skills (Making judgments).

To foster the ability of students of exposition of personal opinions to experts as well as a non-specialized public (Communication skills).

To stimulate students to study autonomously and communicate their knowledge clearly (Learning skills).

Lessons in classroom; seminars by invoted speakers

None. Students are hower encouraged to review basic microeconomics.

Not mandatory

Public choice applies the economic pronciples to the political deicision-making process. Among the topics illustrated in the course are: the role and the function of the government, the decision-making process of the government and of the actors that take decisions and implement them; the decision-making mechanisms in direct democracy; electoral competition; the relationship between private and public interests; the relationship electors-politicians and politicians-bureaucrats; the effect of the evolution of governemnts; the politcal business cycles; normative aspect of collective decision rules.

Mueller, Dennis, Public Choice III. Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Written exam. Students should prove that they have understood the theoretical issue indicated in the question and be able to demonstrate the result, if requested.

1. Normative features of direct democracy:
2. Economic theory of bureaucracy
3. Rent-seeking
4. Oates model of decentralization
5. Tiebout model
6. Electoral competition and deterministic voting
7. Electoral competition and probabilistic voting
8. Median voter theorem
9. Lobbying