Insegnamento a.a. 2026-2027

The course covers the following main topics:

Foundations of policy design: normative and positive approaches to public intervention; efficiency, equity, redistribution, insurance and market failures; political incentives, voting, interest groups, institutions and constraints on reform.

Policy instruments and evidence: taxes, transfers, regulation, public provision, social insurance, behavioral tools and digital instruments; use of empirical evidence, policy reports and comparative indicators in policy design.

Welfare and social policy: pensions, retirement policy, health care, long-term care, intergenerational justice and the economic and political consequences of population ageing.

Migration and redistribution: economic effects of migration, welfare-state sustainability, public attitudes, social cohesion and political feasibility of migration policies.

Gender and public policy: gender gaps, family policy, labor-market participation, women’s political representation, quotas, electoral rules and institutional reforms.

Information, preferences and political communication: motivated reasoning, persuasion, misinformation, trust and the role of beliefs in shaping policy preferences.

Current challenges to policy-making: populism, polarization, demographic change, fiscal sustainability, and the implications of artificial intelligence for public policy and public administration.

Applied policy design: development of student policy proposals through topic selection, intermediate feedback, executive summaries, class discussion and final presentations.

• Explain the main normative and positive approaches to public intervention in the economy.
• Identify the economic rationales for policy intervention, including efficiency, equity, redistribution, social insurance, market failures and externalities.
• Describe how political incentives, institutions, voters, interest groups and administrative constraints shape policy choices and reform outcomes.
• Recognize the main policy instruments available to governments, including taxation, transfers, regulation, public provision, behavioral tools and digital instruments.
• Discuss the economic and political challenges associated with pensions, retirement, health care, long-term care, migration, gender gaps, intergenerational justice, ageing, populism and artificial intelligence.
• Understand how evidence, comparative indicators and empirical research can inform the design and evaluation of public policies.

• Analyze real-world policy problems by identifying objectives, target groups, trade-offs, constraints, winners and losers.
• Evaluate alternative policy instruments in terms of economic coherence, distributional effects, political feasibility and implementation constraints.
• Use empirical evidence, policy reports and comparative data to support policy analysis and policy recommendations.
• Design a policy proposal that connects problem diagnosis, policy instruments, financing, political feasibility, implementation and evaluation.
• Communicate policy analysis effectively through written executive summaries, oral presentations and structured class discussion.
• Work in teams to develop, revise and defend a policy proposal, incorporating feedback from peers and instructors.

• Lectures
• Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
• Practical Exercises
• Collaborative Works / Assignments

The course combines face-to-face lectures, guest speakers’ talks, practical exercises, and collaborative assignments.

Face-to-face lectures are used to introduce the main theoretical and empirical tools of the course, including normative and positive approaches to public intervention, policy instruments, political constraints, and the economic and political analysis of specific policy areas.

Guest speakers’ talks expose students to current research and policy debates on selected topics covered in the course. They allow students to connect the analytical framework developed in class with specialized expertise and real-world policy challenges.

Practical exercises are integrated into selected lectures through short applied discussions, policy dilemmas, interpretation of empirical evidence, and brief policy-design applications. These exercises help students connect theoretical concepts to concrete policy problems and prepare them for the final policy discussions.

Collaborative works and assignments are developed through group-based policy presentations and executive summaries. Student teams select and analyze a policy issue, identify the relevant economic and political trade-offs, assess alternative instruments, and present a policy proposal that is both economically coherent and politically feasible. Intermediate checkpoints, including topic selection, short policy-design memos and peer feedback, support the development of the final presentation.

The assessment for attending students combines a written individual exam and continuous assessment.

The written individual exam accounts for 50% of the final grade. Attending students may complete this component either through the partial exam system, according to the official exam calendar, or through the general exam. The written exam assesses students’ knowledge and understanding of the theoretical, empirical and policy-design material covered in the course. It may include open-answer questions and closed-answer questions, such as true/false or multiple-choice questions. The exam verifies students’ ability to explain the main normative and positive approaches to public intervention, identify the economic and political rationale of different policy instruments, and discuss the main policy challenges analyzed in the course.

Continuous assessment accounts for 50% of the final grade. It is based on collaborative work, oral presentation in class, written executive summaries or policy-design memos, intermediate checkpoints, and active participation in class discussions. Student teams develop a policy analysis on an assigned or approved topic, identify the relevant economic and political trade-offs, assess alternative policy instruments, and present a policy proposal that is economically coherent and politically feasible. This component verifies students’ ability to apply the concepts learned in class to real-world policy problems, use evidence and policy reports, evaluate distributional and political constraints, communicate policy recommendations clearly, and work effectively in teams.

The continuous assessment component is structured as follows: 20% final oral presentation, 15% executive summary or policy-design memo, 10% intermediate checkpoints, including topic pitch and feedback activities, and 5% active participation in class discussions.

The assessment for non-attending students is based on a written individual general exam, which accounts for 100% of the final grade.

The general exam covers the entire course program, including the theoretical lectures, policy topics, required readings, and the materials related to student presentations and policy discussions made available on the course platform. The exam may include open-answer questions and closed-answer questions, such as true/false or multiple-choice questions. It verifies students’ knowledge and understanding of the main normative and positive approaches to public intervention, their ability to analyze policy instruments and policy trade-offs, and their capacity to discuss the economic, political and institutional constraints that shape policy design.

The course does not rely on a single compulsory textbook. Teaching materials include lecture slides, selected book chapters, academic papers, policy reports and multimedia materials made available on Blackboard. The final reading list will be communicated at the beginning of the course.

Indicative reference materials may include selected chapters from textbooks in public economics, political economy and policy design, together with recent academic articles and policy reports on pensions, retirement, health care, long-term care, migration, gender policy, intergenerational justice, populism, artificial intelligence and public policy. Additional materials, including guest lecture slides and student presentation materials, will be made available on Blackboard during the course.