Economics and Finance

This course is designed to help students to achieve a solid grasp of the theory of public finance by applying the basic tools of microeconomics. The course trains students in areas relevant to the needs of business and government's institutions and provides the necessary background for advanced graduate studies. Topics covered include: the theories of collective decision processes (voting, Condorcet winner, Arrow's theorem, median voter theorem, social welfare functions); market failures (public goods, Samuelsonian public goods; merit goods; externalities; club goods and fiscal federalism); interest group, bureaucracy and rent seeking; fiscal constitution and public budgetary process; analysis of public expenditures; theories of taxation (progressive, regressive and proportional taxation; issues of efficiency, effectiveness and equity; optimal taxation; commodity and income taxation; tax shifting and tax incidence; Italian tax system); deficit financing and public debt (Ricardian equivalence, Lucas and Barro model, intergenerational shifting of debt burden; sustainability and Domar's model) cost-benefit analysis.