Public Finance (Finance) A - L

Knowledge and understanding: students will acquire in-depth knowledge and understanding of the role that the State plays in modern market economies by means of financial tools and the definition of the game’s rules that all members of the society have to respect as far as their economic behaviour is concerned. The student will develop the understanding of the complex State’s decision-making process with regard to allocation, stabilization and redistribution functions.

Applying knowledge and understanding: students will be able to properly evaluate the problems regarding the State’s presence in an economic system where different subjects, either public or private for-profit or private not-for-profit, interact.

Making judgements: students will acquire the ability to employ the economic approach to formulate their personal opinion, critical and freestanding, on those aspects that concern the State’s presence in a complex economic system, where subjects are expected to act in their own self-interest.

Communication skills: students will be able to communicate, in a clear and unambiguous way, to either experts or non-experts, their opinion concerning the State’s role in the modern economic systems, also through written works, diagrams and graphs, employing the existing information technologies for the presentation, acquisition and exchange of knowledge. Evaluation of the communication skills, in a concise and/or analytic form, will take place formally during the written exam, leaving the possibility to evaluate students’ communication skills also through interactive interventions during the in-class lectures.

Learning skills: students will acquire a high learning capacity that will allow them to be autonomous in the management of their professional updating process concerning the evaluation of the activities that the State has to undertake in an economic system, through both budget management and regulation. This type of knowledge is nowadays of increasing importance, mainly because of the debate on the best way to implement privatization policies.

The course includes lectures, carried out with the support of slides and supplementary teaching material that is made available to students through the Studium on-line platform. In order to consolidate the understanding of the topics and the analytical skills of the students, during the planned lectures, some classroom exercises will be done. Should teaching be carried out in mixed mode or remotely, it may be necessary to introduce changes with respect to previous statements, in line with the programme planned and outlined in the Syllabus.

No formal prerequisites. A knowledge of the basic concepts of Microeconomics is very useful and is therefore recommended.

Although not compulsory, it is strongly recommended to attend the lessons, to acquire the ability to correctly do the exercises of the written exam.

The first part of the course program is dedicated to the study of the general principles of the State’s intervention in the modern market economies. The program goes on with the theory of government revenues, paying special attention to the distortive effects of taxes. The fundamentals of the financial decentralization are also considered. The program ends with the analysis of the reasons for downsizing the State’s intervention within the economic system. The course consists of 20 lectures, each lasting 2 hours.

Balestrino A., Galli E., Spataro L., (2019) Scienza delle Finanze, UTET, Torino: from p. 5 to 49; from p. 73 to 91 (except for section 1.4.4); from p. 112 to 125; from p. 129 to 144; from p. 287 to 357 (excluding paragraphs IV.2.3 and IV.3.3); from p. 366 to 391. Further teaching material, in addition to the aforementioned textbook, will be available on the STUDIUM on-line platform.

Knowledge will be tested through a written exam. Should the conditions require it, the assessment of student’s knowledge may also be carried out remotely.

Previous written exams and exercises will be available on the Studium on-line platform