Insegnamento a.a. 2018-2019

Module I (History of Economic Thought): the course builds on a direct confrontation with selected texts of major economists, with the purpose of highlighting the explicit and implicit assumptions characterizing their peculiar approach. Preliminary reading of the texts and active discussion in class is strongly encouraged.The attention is necessarily focused on a limited number of authors, whose contributions represent significant turning points in the history of economic ideas.

• Adam Smith, the theory of moral sentiments and the wealth of nations.
• David Ricardo, the principles of political economy.
• Thomas Robert Malthus, the paradox of thrift and the crisis of overproduction.
• Karl Marx, the intrinsically revolutionary character of capital accumulation.
• John Maynard Keynes, poverty in plenty and the need for monetary reform.
• Friedrich August von Hayek, the road to serfdom and the denationalization of money.

Module II (Public Policy and Administration): the course is organised in two parts.

1. The first part discusses how different disciplines and theoretical perspectives have conceptualized the state and the instruments for organizing it in order to make it work for the collective good.
2. In the second part, the course deals with one of the main functions of the state: the generation of public policies (i.e., policy-making). The lectures explore how we understand the processes of decision-making and of public policies’ creation. It draws from models of bounded rationality and incrementalism, reaching out to the most recent developments in behavioural public policy, informed by studies in psychology. Finally the module considers how public policies are thought. 

The course covers the following topics:

Part I Four models of the State:

• The hierarchist model (the Chinese modern State, theories of bureaucracy).
• The individualist model (economic theories of the State, competition and incentive systems).
• The egalitarian model (communitarianism, citizen engagement and participatory democracy).
• The fatalist model (complexity theory, policy experimentalism).
• Governing beyond government: governance and Foucault’s governmentality.

Part II The State as policy-making:

• Decision-making and the role of rationality (H. Simon’s bounded rationality and satisficing).
• Cognitive biases, prospect theory and nudging (trends and applications).
• The garbage can model and Kingdon’s multiple stream framework of policy-making.
• The evolution of public policies in the long-run (punctuate equilibrium and advocacy coalition frameworks).

Module I (History of Economic Thought). At the end of the course students will be able to:

• Define basic economic concepts (such as value, wealth, capital, money) in the light of the writings of major authors.
• Identify the assumptions on which certain theories or arguments are based.
• Recognize the paternity of received economic concepts and ideas.
• Illustrate the line of reasoning through which given authors reach their conclusions.

Module II (Public Policy and Administration). After successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Identify the main models for organizing the state and the correspondent instruments.
• Identify the main factors determining the policy-making process and the evolution of public policies in the long-run.
• Discuss the main theoretical foundations underlying models of the state and of the policy-making process.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
• Individual assignments

1. Module I (History of Economic Thought). The learning experience of this course consists essentially in the direct confrontation with the original writings of major economists. A brief introduction to each author is provided, following the traditional face-to-face approach, only to recall the historical context in which they developed their ideas. Most of the time, however, is dedicated to read and discuss in class selected readings by the authors. Students are strongly encouraged to participate in interpreting and commenting the texts.
2. Module II (Public Policy and Administration). The lectures are situated in the context of the current debate, at domestic and international level, of how we can organize at best the State and its public administration. The module entails both traditional lectures as well as class discussions about relevant case studies and examples taken from current events. It also involves two structured class discussions of a scholarly paper, one of which associated with a graded take-home assignment. The lectures themselves prepare students for this exercise:

1. History of Economic Thought: written exam with open-ended questions. Typical questions involve the interpretation of a text from one of the economists discussed in class, the illustration of how the same topic is addressed by different authors, or the comparison between different authors in relation to a specific aspect or issue.
2. Public Policy & Administration: in order to evaluate the acquisition of the aforementioned learning outcomes, the assessment of attending students comprises two components:

• Written exam (80% of the final grade) using open-ended questions to test both basic knowledge of the course material, the understanding of key concepts discussed in class, and the ability to connect topics and argumentations.
• Individual essay assignment (20% of the final grade), a memo of maximum 1.000 words on a scholarly paper on the basis of a set of guiding questions. The scholarly paper and the assignment are then discussed in class. The assignment tests the ability of students to critically assess a scholarly paper and apply the theoretical frameworks learnt in class to the understanding of a specific case. The aim of this assignment is also to improve the skills of students in writing a concise and effective text that could be used for policy advice.

1. History of Economic Thought: written exam with open-ended questions. Typical questions involve the interpretation of a text from one of the economists discussed in class, the illustration of how the same topic is addressed by different authors, or the comparison between different authors in relation to a specific aspect or issue.
2. Public Policy & Administration: general final exam (100% of the final grade) using open-ended questions to test both basic knowledge of the course material, the understanding of key concepts discussed in the course readings, and the ability to connect different topics and argumentations.

1. Module I (History of Economic Thought). All compulsory readings are provided through the Bboard.
2. Module II (Public Policy and Administration). The teaching materials comprise a selection of chapters from different textbooks as well as scholarly articles. These include, among others,

• C. HOOD, The art of the State.
• C.R. SUNSTEIN, The ethics of influence.
• The course literature is accessible for students through Bboard and Course Reserves.