k82575 Economics of the Public Sector

CEVRO University
spring 2024
Extent and Intensity
16/0/0. 7 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Ing. Marek Vokoun, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Jan Neugebauer, Ph.D., MBA (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Ing. Marek Vokoun, Ph.D.
Department of Economics – Departments – President – CEVRO University
Timetable of Seminar Groups
k82575/praha: Sat 24. 2. 15:30–19:50 Učebna 217/B, Fri 5. 4. 11:00–13:50 Učebna 218/B, 15:30–19:50 Učebna 218/B, J. Neugebauer, M. Vokoun
Prerequisites (in Czech)
( PROGRAM ( B - PVS ) && ROCNIK ( 2 )) || (! PROGRAM ( B - PVS ) && TYP_STUDIA ( B ))
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
The course aims to systematically analyze the rationales and repercussions of government interventions in the economy, encompassing a range of interventions and their economic justifications, particularly in regulating prices and products. It also examines the impacts of monetary policies and taxation. Successful completion of the course equips students with the ability to differentiate between market and bureaucratic management, identify the motivations of stakeholders in various government interventions, and evaluate their influence on decision-making processes. Furthermore, students will develop the capacity to analyze unintended consequences of specific government measures, discern the dissonance between proclaimed and actual objectives of economic and political policies, assess the influences of interest groups, and comprehend the dynamics within the public sector, thereby grasping their significance within the broader economy.
Learning outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will be able to:
- Economically explain and justify the principles and nature of the functioning of the public sector, including types of interventions and their economic impacts.
- Differentiate between market and non-market allocation of resources and activities within society in the context of government interventions; critically apply the theory of market failure to analyze situations where the state intervenes in the economy.
- Explain the motivations of politicians and interest groups, including bureaucracy, in formulating and implementing policies of the public sector; analyze the effectiveness of tax systems and public expenditures and their impacts on the economy and society.
Syllabus
  • 1. Function and size of the public sector: Recapitulation of economics as a value-neutral science, methodology of natural and social sciences, economics and politics, ethics and history, private and public sector.
  • 2. Foundations of welfare economics: Subjectivity of key economic categories, economic coordination, opportunity costs, theory of exchange, evolution of welfare economics.
  • 3.Social function of welfare: Social policy, protection, inequality, mobility.
  • 4. Externalities: Positive, negative, Coase, internalization.
  • 5. Public goods and publicly provided private goods.
  • 6. Inequality and redistributive function.
  • 7. Theory of public choice.
  • 8. Interest groups, rent-seeking, monopolies, cartels and their forms, consequences for the market system.
  • 9. Bureaucracy, government expenditures, their justifications, and impacts.
  • 10. Government interventions, cases of price and product regulation, tariffs, quotas, and their consequences, behavioral regulation and behavioral economics and the public sector.
  • 11. Taxation theories, tax impact, tax neutrality.
  • 12. Discrimination theory, private vs. public discrimination, discrimination and the labor market, price discrimination, anti-discrimination laws and their impacts.
Literature
    required literature
  • STEJSKAL, Jan; MIKUŠOVÁ MERIČKOVÁ, Beáta; KUBA, Ondřej a MUTHOVÁ, Nikoleta. Veřejná ekonomie. Praha: Wolters Kluwer, 2023. ISBN 9788076766808.
    recommended literature
  • STIGLITZ, Joseph E. Ekonomie veřejného sektoru. Praha: Grada Publishing, 1997. ISBN 9788071694540.
  • REKTOŘÍK, Jaroslav. Ekonomika a řízení odvětví veřejného sektoru. 2., aktualiz. vyd. Praha: Ekopress, 2007. ISBN 978-80-86929-29-3.
Teaching methods
lectures, seminars, class discussion, case study, presentations
Assessment methods
- presentation of a term paper project 25 % - term papers 25 % - oral examination 50 %
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is also listed under the following terms spring 2021, spring 2022, spring 2023.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.vsci.cz/course/cevro/spring2024/k82575