BAF 222 - Public Finance: This course offers a general introductory survey of the field of public finance. The topics include: when market fail, methods of government intervention, program and project evaluation, major state and local taxes and their effects, and financial relations. Study the productive and allocate role of government and of other aggregations of individuals, as well as the interaction among politics, economics and ethics. Course includes welfare economics, the theory of public goods, collective choice problems, cost-benefit analysis, and governmental public finance. Analyze of the equity and efficiency effects of major taxes, including the personal income tax, the corporate income tax and the social security tax.
The objective of this course is to examine the role of economic analysis in the strategy, evaluation and implementation of public policy. Public finance issues are paramount to economic and political discourse all over the globe, as one of the primary roles of the government is to generate resources from its people to spend the money raised for the benefit of the people. The primary course objective is to provide the students with the tools, and the skills to master these tools, in order to understand the underlying concepts entailed in public finance.
| Week | Topics |
|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction & Syllabus Review |
| 2 | Individuals and Government - Chapter 1: Individuals, Society, and Government Governments and Political Institutions The Allocation of Resources between Government and Private Use The Mixed Economy, Markets, and Politics The Structure of State and Local Government Expenditure Financing Government Expenditure Market Failure and the Functions of Government: How Much Government is Enough? Aging Populations: Implications for Public Finance. (Page 2 – 32) |
| 3 | Tools of Microeconomic Analysis - Chapter 1: Indifference Curve Analysis Analysis of Production and Costs Profit Maximization, Competition, and Supply. (Page 36 – 54) |
| 4 | Efficiency, Markets, and Governments - Chapter 2: Positive and Normative Economics Normative Evaluation of Resource Use: The Efficiency Criterion Markets, Prices, and Efficiency Conditions Market Failure: A Preview of the Basis for Government Activity Equity Versus Efficiency Positive Analysis Trade-off between Equity and Efficiency. (Page 55 – 79) |
| 5 | Externalities and Government Policy Externalities - Chapter 3: A Classification and Some Examples Internalization of Externalities Property Rights to Resource Use and Internalization of Externalities: The Coase Theorem Environmental Protection Policies in the United States Markets for Pollution Rights in Practice: Sulfur Dioxide Allowances, and Capping and Trading the Right to Emit. (Page 98 – 140) |
| 6 | Public Goods - Chapter 4: Characteristics of Public Goods Provision of Private Goods and Public Goods: Markets and Government The Demand for a Pure Public Good Efficient Output of a Pure Public Good Public Policy Perspective National Defense and Homeland Security The Free-Rider Problem. (Page 144 – 172) |
| 7 | Public Choice and the Political Process - Chapter 5: The Supply of Public Goods through Political Institutions: The Concept of Political Equilibrium A Model of Political Equilibrium under Majority Rule Uniqueness and Cycling of Outcomes under Majority Rule The Political Process Political Parties and Political Equilibrium Voting on More than One Issue at a Time: Logrolling Special-Interest Groups and Their Impact on Political Equilibrium Bureaucracy and the Supply of Public Output. (Page 176 – 219) |
| 8 | Midterm Exam |
| 9 | Cost-Benefit Analysis and Government Investments - Chapter 6: The Budget Process Economic Analysis for the Budget Process: Achieving the Least-Cost Means of Accomplishing an Authorized Objective Cost-Benefit Analysis Analysis of Government Investments: Cost-Benefit analysis in Practice. (Page 226 – 257) |
| 10 | Introduction to Government Finance - Chapter 10: Purpose and Consequences of Government Finance Principles of Taxation How Should the Burden of Government Finance Be Distributed? Criteria for Evaluating Alternative Methods of Government Finance Alternatives to Taxation Government Enterprise. (Page 412 – 441) |
| 11 | Taxation, Prices, Efficiency, and the Distribution of Income - Chapter 11: Lump-Sum Taxes: A Benchmark Standard for Comparison The Impact of Taxes on Market Prices and Efficiency Further Analysis of Tax Incidence General Equilibrium Analysis of the Excess Burden and Incidence of Taxes Taxes, Government Expenditures, and the Distribution of Income. (Page 445 – 478) |
| 12 | Practical Session |
| 13 | Budget Balance and Government Debt (Pg. 489 – 521) The Federal Budget Balance The Impact of Recessions and Public Policies Economic Effects of the Federal Budget Balance Government Debt Burden of the Debt National Saving and Government Budget Balance |
| 14 | Review for the Final Exam |
| Method | Qty | % Each |
|---|---|---|
| Midterm Exam(s) | 1 | 40 |
| Quiz | 2 | 10 |
| Final Exam | 1 | 40 |
David N. Hyman, Public Finance, 11th edition, Cengage Learning2014 ISBN 978-1-285-17395-5 or later edition.