This course presents a systematic way of thinking about economic principles and the role of government. The course will ensure participants understand the nature and role of markets. Governments interact with the economy in general and markets at all levels, ranging from market design to hybrid public-private programs, from policies designed to provide incentives or disincentives to market and other behaviours, to incorporating behavioural and economic principles in government itself. The course will identify the economy and how we measure it. It will frame public budgeting for the financing of government through taxation, borrowing and other means and will introduce concepts of deficit and government debt, fiscal austerity, economic stimulus and other fiscal policy approaches.
The course will provide a framework for understanding the strengths and limits of markets as a form of social organization and for identifying the precise nature of market failure, the objectives of public policy and forms of government intervention, for example by regulation, expenditures, service provision, redistribution and taxation. Participants will examine the efficiency of resource allocation in the economy as a whole and at the micro level in decision making by individuals, firms and government actors. The idea of the efficiency of resource allocation will be emphasised and developed by providing concrete examples and applications.