Master

Content

This course is about different public activities related to the revenue and the expenditure side of the public budget. As to the revenues, in Part I commodity taxes will be discussed with a focus on efficiency and income taxes with a focus on distributional concerns. Public funds may, however, not only be used for redistribution. A major reason for raising revenue is to finance public expenditures related to market failure. In Part II, two types of market failure will be at the center: public goods and externalities.

Whenever appropriate both sides of the budget will be studied in an interrelated way.

Course material

For the course material and e-learning questions, please go to Moodle.External link

Literature

• Atkinson, A. and J. Stiglitz (1980), Lectures on Public Economics, McGraw-Hill Singapore.
• Hindriks, J. and G. Myles (2013): Intermediate Public Economics, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
• Myles, G. (1995), Public Economics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Further references will be announced in class.

For a refresher of math skills: 

• Chiang, Alpha (1984): Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics, McGraw-Hill, Singapore.
• Hoy, M. et al. (2011): Mathematics for Eoconomics, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
• Wisniewski, M. (2013): Mathematics for Economics, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.

Please also see the Math Primerpdf, 393 kb · de!

Organisation Details

• Offered every summer term

Exam

• There will be a 60-minute written exam.

Exams of the previous terms can be found here: Exam 1pdf, 166 kb · de

Public Policy in Open Economies

Content

Globalization has brought about competition among states that is driven by factor mobility. This competition will likely lead to an erosion of the welfare state, induce a race to the bottom of capital taxation and erode national regulatory systems. In general, it will suffer from the same type of market failure which induced the respective government activity in the closed economy in the first place. In this course, the mechanisms behind these market failures will be analysed and possible remedies discussed.

Structure

1. Introduction
2. Taxes and Public Goods
3. Erosion of the Welfare State
4. Ecological Competition
5. Limited Liability, Risk Taking and the Competition of Bank
6. The Competition of Competition Rules

Course material

For the course material and e-learning questions, please go to Moodle.External link

Literature

• Main reference: Sinn, Hans-Werner (2003): The New Systems CompetitionExternal link, Yrjö Jahnsson Lectures, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
• Newspaper article "In Defence of the Profession"pdf, 1 mb · de
  (This is the translation of an article by Hans-Werner Sinn that appeared in the German daily newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" on October 31, 2014.)
• Further references will be announced in class.

Organisational Details

• Offered every winter term

Exam

• There will be a 60-minute written exam. 
• Exams of the previous terms can be found here: Exam 1 pdf, 142 kb · de

Economics of Education

Content

The module consists of two parts.

1. Lectures with integrated tutorials:

First, theoretical basics of education economics and empirical evidence are presented. The aim is to provide an understanding of why people invest in education, what private and social returns to education are and who should finance education. These concepts are then applied to specific topics like intergenerational mobility, student migration and spending on school resources.  Finally, the course takes a look at the macro-perspective in order to investigate the relationship between education and growth.

2. Group project / individual project:

After introducing the statistical software Stata, students apply their knowledge of education economics from the first part in empirical research projects. Students use real-world data and perform econometric analysis in Stata. Finally, the econometric analyses are discussed in the context of causal inference.

Prerequisites:

• Knowledge of basic concepts in econometrics, in particular regression analysis
• Interest in statistical analysis with Stata
• Experience in applied data analysis is helpful, but not required

Course material

• For the course material and e-learning questions, please go to Moodle.External link

Organisational Details

• Offered regularly in summer - alternating with Adv. PE III and IV.

Exam

• Assignments (lecture part, 50% of total grade)
• Assignments (group or individual project) (50% of total grade)

Credits

• 6 ECTS
• 3 DigiLab points

Health Economics

Content

This course combines applied microeconomics with public finance / social policy questions. A particular focus will be on the various incentives which individuals face in their health-related behavior and which are largely shaped by the form of their health insurance. Possible questions: Why do developed societies decide to have social health insurance? What is the optimal design of health insurance? What about risk selection? Other topics will also be dealt with (e. g. concerning the special role played by physicians).

Structure

Part I: Introduction
1. Introduction
3. Health and education (health production)

Part II: Insurance market
5. Market failure and justice
6. Optimal health insurance contracts
7. Risk selection and regulation

Part III: Providers
8. Physicians as a supplier of health care services
10. Paying providers

(Numbering of chapters accourding to book chapters)

Literature

• Zweifel, Breyer, Kifmann (2009): Health Economics, Springer (or the German edition).
• Further references will be announced in class.

Organisational Details

• Offered regularly in summer - alternating with Adv. PE II and IV.

Exam

• Written exam; and may consist of additional forms of students' assessments (the exact weights will be announced at the beginning of the course).

Content

The module consists of two parts.

1. Lectures with integrated tutorials:

Details to be announced soon.

Note: The first part can be seen as being complementary to Advanced Public Economics II (MW23.2): Education Economics.

2. Group project / individual project:

After introducing the statistical software Stata, students apply their knowledge from the first part in empirical research projects. Students use real-world data and perform econometric analysis in Stata. Finally, the econometric analyses are discussed in the context of causal inference.

Prerequisites:

• Knowledge of basic concepts in econometrics, in particular regression analysis
• Interest in statistical analysis with Stata
• Experience in applied data analysis is helpful, but not required

Course material

• For the course material and e-learning questions, please go to Moodle.External link

Organisational Details

• Offered regularly in summer - alternating with Adv. PE II and III

Exam

• Assignments or mid-term exam (lecture part, 50% of total grade)
• Assignments (group or individual project) (50% of total grade)

Credits

• 6 ECTS
• 3 DigiLab points

Content

This course is about two different, but related perspectives for the study of regional dynamics: the perspective of economics and the perspective of regional science (geography). Students will learn about different methods in the context of real-world examples. The aim is to make students aware of differences and similarities.

Course material

The course material will be available here.

Organisation Details

• This course is compulsory for the specialisation area Regional Dynamics. This area provides an interdisciplinary approach to a better understanding of regional dynamics. The perspectives both of economics and regional science (geography) are part of the program. This allows a more comprehensive approach to topics like migration, innovation and, more generally, economic and social change, which very often have an important regional dimension. Furthermore, also topics of special relevance for the local region are addressed. A special feature of this area is that it can be studied with an economics and a geographic background. German and English language skills are required for that specialisation area.
• Offered every winter term

Exam

• There will be a written exam.

We regularly offer master seminars, mostly in the summer term. The seminars deal with topics related to public finance and public policy. In the following, you find an overview of the chair's seminars:

Winter Term 2020/21 - Survey Design for Causal Inference: Applications in Public Economic Research
Summer Term 2020 - Empirical causal analysis - methods and applications to public policies 
Summer Term 2019 - Empirical causal analysis - methods and applications to public policies 
Winter Term 2018/19 - Population and Family Economics 
Summer Term 2018 - Education over the life-cycle

Module description

The main goal of the module MW26.5 offered by the Chair of Public Finance is that students do an empirical analysis based on theoretical economic literature.    

The structure of the module is as follows: By the end of October (winter term) or April (summer term) students who want to participate in the module inform the chair about their interest. In consultation with the chair, a topic and a dataset/ datasets for the empirical analysis is chosen. During the semester, the participants of the module are expected to conduct their statistical analyses on their own. If in need, an appointment with the supervisor can be scheduled. The results of the empirical analysis together with (additional) theoretical literature must be presented in an oral presentation at the end of the semester.

The chair is in the possession of several datasets which the students are invited to use. Those datasets mainly focus on migration and include data on international students as well as language learning opportunities. Questions such as "How does the assimilation of international students at university work? Do friends play a role in this assimilation process?" or "How does climate change affect language learning?" are two examples of questions which can be answered with this data. However, students are also invited to use other datasets and discuss other possible topics with the chair.

Important to note is that this module requires some knowledge of how to conduct an empirical analysis using a statistical software (e.g. STATA or R). This module does not provide an introduction in any statistical software. In addition, it has to be mentioned that the number of participants is limited and depends on the chair’s capacities.

Successfully passing this courses is rewarded with 6 DigiLab points. This course also provides an excellent preparation for an empirical master thesis at the Chair of Public Finance.