Login
Student authentication

Is it the first time you are entering this system?
Use the following link to activate your id and create your password.
»  Create / Recover Password

POLITICAL ECONOMY AND PUBLIC PROCUREMENT

PUBLIC PROCUREMENT

Syllabus

EN IT

Learning Objectives

LEARNING OUTCOMES: The main goal of the course is to introduce the students to the main concepts of Public Choice, with both a theoretical and an empirical approach. The course deals with the theoretical problems related to the behavior of voters and politicians; additionally, it introduces the students to the empirical methodology applied to political economy problems. Particular attention is given to issues related to the electoral competition and bureaucracy.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: The final goal is gain a comprehensive knowledge
of the political environment from a rational-choice perspective.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: The final goal is to gain knowledge of
the analytical tools to study and understand the political environment and operate in the field of policy making.

MAKING JUDGEMENTS: At the end of the course, the student will have acquired the
theoretical and methodological tools to analyze and understand the political environment both in its structural characteristics and in its recent developments. She will also have gained familiarity with the tools necessary to design, implement and evaluate public policies.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS: Students must be able to use the tools learned during the course to interpret the political phenomena.

Prerequisites

A first degree in Economics (with a particular focus on Microeconomics) is ideal. In
particular an introductory course in microeconomics and possibly in basic public finance
would be welcome (concept of taxation, at least in a competitive market). In the second
module the main tool of analysis will be game theory, and the students are supposed to
already know the concept of Nash equilibrium in both static and dynamic games. Basic of
mathematics is also necessary.

Program

The first part of the course will deal with methodology, government statistics, theories of
government growth and welfare economics (Week 1); public goods and externalities (Week
2); taxation and distribution, optimal taxation, inequality (Week 3).

The second part will introduce the problem of public procurement and contractual methods
to solve it (Week 4); information, competitive bidding, prevention of collusion and corruption
(Week 5); award rules, lot design, centralization, competences and large projects -
infrastructure (Week 6).

Books

The necessary material is uploaded on the website. The textbooks are the following:
Public Finance, Rosen and Gayer 2014, McGraw-Hill
Intermediate Public Economics, (1st of 2nd edition), Hindriks & Myles, MIT Press
Handbook of Procurement, (2006), Piga, Dimitri, Spagnolo (eds), Cambridge University
Press
Any other further reading will be available on the website.

Bibliography

Additional materials, such as scholarly articles on particular topics, and lecture slides will be
made available on the course page.

Teaching methods

Lessons and practice in class

Exam Rules

The final exam is a 1,5-hour written test consisting of three questions. Within each question
there might be a choice of "sub-questions". To pass the exam it is necessary to obtain a
mark of 18 in at least 2 questions. The mark for the written exam is given by the average
mark of the three questions. In each question, the scale of marks goes from 0 to 34, so
students can obtain a final mark of 30 even without answering perfectly all the questions.
In addition, students can volunteer to give presentations and have their mark added to the
mark of the exam. Each presentation will be given a mark from 0 to +3, which is added to
the mark of the first exam session after the course only, and rounded to the nearest integer
to determine the final mark of the students. Withdrawals from scheduled presentations will
be marked with -1.