Principles of microeconomics

The aim of the course is to give students a comprehensive view of the effect of taxes on entrepreneurship, investment and growth. Taxes will be studied from two different perspectives: from the Treasury’s perspective, which aims at collecting revenue in an efficient and equitable way, and from the taxpayer’s perspective, which tries to minimize the burden of taxes.

The course offers a basis for understanding the determinants of public finance. The student will become familiar with the models of electoral competition essential for understanding the nature of collective choices, public policies and the complex structure of the tax system. The main differences between public and private market finance due to the fact that public policy proposals are subject to a political decision-making process will be studied. The student will learn to approach and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the public resource allocation mechanism through the study of interesting empirical and theoretical works in the field of public finance.

Traditional lectures

Written exam at the end of the course.

Attending students will also be able to benefit from some supplementary activities carried out in the classroom in which the active contribution of each student will be part of the overall assessment.

The aim of the exam is to ascertain the student's degree of knowledge on both empirical and theoretical aspects of the discipline. In particular, following the Dublin descriptors, the exam will assess the degree of assimilation of the contents of the discipline, the ability to make the appropriate connections between the various topics covered, the ability to express the required topics clearly and comprehensively, to apply the knowledge, autonomy of judgment, communication skills and learning skills.

"The student disabled and/or with SDL (specific disorders of learning), who intends to take advantage of an individualized intervention for the conduct of the exam must contact the Disability Integration office of the University of Salento at the address:

paola.martino@unisalento.it

https://www.economia.unisalento.it/536

1. Harris-Trump presidential debate
2. Economic analysis of political processes
   • Buchanan and Tullock - Chapter 6: A Generalized Economic Theory of Constitutions
   • Condorcet Paradox and Median voter - Peragine, V., e Sacchi A., in Uricchio, A., Peragine, V., e Aulenta, M., (2018), “Manuale di Scienza delle Finanze, diritto finanziario e contabilità pubblica”, Nel Diritto Editore, pp. 43-71.
3. Median Voter and Redistributive Policies
   1. Meltzer and Richard model and inter-regional income disparity – Giuranno (2009),
   2. Methodological appendix: Nash bargaining.
4. Organized crime infiltration – See material on Elearning.
5. Direct vs indirect democracy – See material on Elearning.
6. Economic and Political Competition: Winer and Ferris (2022) chapter 2.
7. Electoral Competition and Economic Welfare: Winer and Ferris (2022) chapter 3.
8. Public finance equilibrium policies: what can go wrong? Winer and Ferris (2022) chapter 4.
9. Fiscal Structure: Winer and Ferris (2022) chapter 5.
10. Behaviour, Equilibrium, and the Degree of Competition: Winer and Ferris (2022) Appendix.
11. Differentiated fiscal federalism – See material on Elearning.
12. Strategic voting on tax policy: direct vs representative democracy in the laboratory – See material on Elearning.
13. Internet, electoral campaigns, and public finance. A study on the use of internet in electoral campaigns by Council of Europe Study (2018). Available on Elearning.
14. Technology and Democracy. European Commission (2020). Available on Elearning.

Most of the course material is available on the e-learning platform. Students can request the access key from the teacher.

Winer, Stanley and Ferris, J. Stephen, (2022), Political Competition and the Study of Public Economics, Cambridge University Press.

Additional teaching materials are available to the student on the E-learning platform.