6094 - POLITICAL ECONOMICS
CLEAM - CLEF - BIEM
Department of Economics
Course taught in English
Go to class group/s: 31
CLEAM (6 credits - I sem. - OP | SECS-P/02) - CLEF (6 credits - I sem. - OP | SECS-P/02) - BIEM (6 credits - I sem. - OP | SECS-P/02)
Course Director:
VINCENZO GALASSO
VINCENZO GALASSO
Course Objectives
How do politics and institutions affect economics? The course is designed to provide the participants with an introduction to contemporary political institutions and to modern political economics. The aim is to understand the main features of contemporary democracies and explain the determination of economic policy in modern democracies and to analyze how these policies may differ according to the different political institutions. Focusing on the welfare state and the labour and product markets, this course analyzes how political and electoral incentives may influence the economic policy. The course then addresses how these differences in economic policies may arise from political institutions, in particular electoral rules and regime types.
Course Content Summary
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The impact of political institutions on decision-making, with particular focus on the role of party systems, executive-legislative relations, electoral systems, interest groups and division of power.
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Analysis of Welfare State politics and policies in Europe and the US;
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Tools of political economics: voting models.
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Welfare state and redistributive policies: general transfers, pension system, labor market regulations and unemployment benefits. Data, facts and theory.
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Electoral rules and electoral competition: single-district proportional elections, multiple-district majoritarian elections. Broad versus targeted redistribution.
Detailed Description of Assessment Methods
Written exam.Students have two options. They may take the exam in two written parts: a 1st partial exam and a 2nd partial exam which will cover the first half and the second half of the course respectively. In this case the exam will be considered as passed only if both exams are sufficient. Alternatively, they may take a general exam covering the entire course material.
Textbooks
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A. LIJPHART, Patterns of Democracy, Yale University Press, 1999
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V. GALASSO, The Political Future of Social Security in Aging Societies, MIT Press, December 2006
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Handouts and slides.
Last change 10/05/2010 15:50