30146 - POLITICAL ECONOMICS
CLEAM - CLEF - BESS-CLES - BIEMF
Department of Economics
Course taught in English
Go to class group/s: 31
CLEAM (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/02) - CLEF (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/02) - BESS-CLES (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/02) - BIEMF (6 credits - II sem. - OBCURS | SECS-P/02)
Course Director:
GUIDO TABELLINI
GUIDO TABELLINI
Course Objectives
How do politics and institutions affect the economy? The course is designed to provide students with an introduction to contemporary political economics. The aim is to understand the main features of contemporary democracies, to explain how economic policies are determined, and to analyze how these policies may differ according to the underlying political institutions. The course analyzes how political and electoral incentives may influence economic policies, and focuses on how these differences in economic policies may arise from political institutions, such as electoral rules and regime types. A particular emphasis is devoted to the determinants and effect of the selection of politicians.
Course Content Summary
- Political incentives and fiscal policy.
- The impact of political institutions on decision-making, with a particular emphasis on the role of party systems, executive-legislative relations, electoral systems, interest groups, division of power.
- Tools of political economics: voting and lobbying models.
- Electoral rules and electoral competition: single-district proportional elections, multiple-district majoritarian elections. Broad versus targeted redistribution.
- The importance of political selection and politicians’ incentives.
- Political corruption: what are its causes and how to discourage it.
Detailed Description of Assessment Methods
Written exam. The detailed grading system will be provided at the beginning of the course
Textbooks
Readings are provided at the beginning of the course.
Last change 25/03/2014 15:30