Master

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. Tax Competition
3. Welfare State Competition
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 24 hour take-home exam at the end of the semester. 
• 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

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.

2. Tutorials and assignments

After introducing the statistical software Stata, students apply their knowledge of education economics from the first part in empirical assignments. Students use real-world data and perform econometric analysis in Stata. The assignments guide students through (partial) replication of economic research articles.

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, please go to Moodle.External link

Organisational Details

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

Grading

• Exam (1/3 of grade)
• Assignments (2/3 of grade) 

Credits

• 6 ECTS
• 3 DigiLab points

Content

The module consists of two parts.

1. Lectures

This course focuses on the relationships between education on the one hand and information, incentives, and innovation on the other hand. The course introduces theoretical concepts and then discusses empirical evidence on a variety of topics, including university choice, migration decisions after university, language learning and technical change. Empirical evidence is discussed especially in the context of establishing causal relationships.

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

2. Tutorials and assignments

After introducing the statistical software Stata, students apply their knowledge from the first part in empirical assignments. Students use real-world data and perform econometric analysis in Stata. The assignments guide students through (partial) replication of an economic research article.

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, please go to Moodle.External link

Organisational Details

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

Grading

• Exam (1/3 of grade)
• Assignments (2/3 of 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

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.

Organisational Details

• Offered every summer term

Exam

• There will be a 24-hour take-home exam at the end of the semester.

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

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 2023/24 - Empirical replication studies in economic inequality, economics of education and migration
• Summer Term 2023a - Empirical replication studies in economic inequality, economics of education and migration
• Summer Term 2023b - Current issues in economic inequality, economics of education and migration
• Winter Term 2022/23 - Empirical Causal Analysis: Methods and Applications to Public Policies.
• Summer Term 2022 - Survey Design for Causal Inference: Applications in Pubic Economics Research
• Summer Term 2021 - Empirical Causal Analysis: Methods and Applications to Public Policies
• 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 needed, 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. In addition, students are expected to write a report on their analysis and findings.

The chair has 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 that 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 statistical software (e.g. STATA or R). This module does not provide an introduction to 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 course is rewarded with 6 DigiLab points. This course also provides an excellent preparation for an empirical master thesis at the Chair of Public Economics.

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.