COURSE INFORMATION Course Title: PUBLIC FINANCE

Code	Course Type	Regular Semester	Theory	Practice	Lab	Credits	ECTS
BAF 222	B	4	3	0	0	3	5

Academic staff member responsible for the design of the course syllabus (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature)	NA
Lecturer (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours:	Agim Kukeli , by appointment
Second Lecturer(s) (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours:
Teaching Assistant(s) and Office Hours:	Xhenet Hoxha by appointment
Language:	English
Compulsory/Elective:	Compulsory
Classroom and Meeting Time:	Room E-213, Meeting time 12:45-15:30
Course Description:	BAF 222 - Public Finance: This course offers a general introductory survey of the field of public finance. The topics include: when market fail, methods of government intervention, program and project evaluation, major state and local taxes and their effects, and financial relations. Study the productive and allocate role of government and of other aggregations of individuals, as well as the interaction among politics, economics and ethics. Course includes welfare economics, the theory of public goods, collective choice problems, cost-benefit analysis, and governmental public finance. Analyze of the equity and efficiency effects of major taxes, including the personal income tax, the corporate income tax and the social security tax.
Course Objectives:	The objective of this course is to examine the role of economic analysis in the strategy, evaluation and implementation of public policy. Public finance issues are paramount to economic and political discourse all over the globe, as one of the primary roles of the government is to generate resources from its people to spend the money raised for the benefit of the people. The primary course objective is to provide the students with the tools, and the skills to master these tools, in order to understand the underlying concepts entailed in public finance.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week	Topics
1	Individuals and Government (Pg. 2 – 32) Individuals, Society, and Government Governments and Political Institutions The Allocation of Resources between Government and Private Use The Mixed Economy, Markets, and Politics The Structure of State and Local Government Expenditure Financing Government Expenditure Market Failure and the Functions of Government: How Much Government is Enough? Aging Populations: Implications for Public Finance
2	Tools of Microeconomic Analysis (Pg. 36 – 54) Indifference Curve Analysis Analysis of Production and Costs Profit Maximization, Competition, and Supply
3	Efficiency, Markets, and Governments (Pg. 55 – 79) Positive and Normative Economics Normative Evaluation of Resource Use: The Efficiency Criterion Markets, Prices, and Efficiency Conditions Market Failure: A Preview of the Basis for Government Activity Equity Versus Efficiency Positive Analysis Trade-off between Equity and Efficiency
4	Externalities and Government Policy (Pg. 98 – 140) Externalities: A Classification and Some Examples Internalization of Externalities Property Rights to Resource Use and Internalization of Externalities: The Coase Theorem Environmental Protection Policies in the United States Markets for Pollution Rights in Practice: Sulfur Dioxide Allowances, and Capping and Trading the Right to Emit
5	Public Goods (Pg. 144 – 172) Characteristics of Public Goods Provision of Private Goods and Public Goods: Markets and Government The Demand for a Pure Public Good Efficient Output of a Pure Public Good Public Policy Perspective National Defense and Homeland Security The Free-Rider Problem
6	Public Choice and the Political Process (Pg. 176 – 219) The Supply of Public Goods through Political Institutions: The Concept of Political Equilibrium A Model of Political Equilibrium under Majority Rule Uniqueness and Cycling of Outcomes under Majority Rule The Political Process Political Parties and Political Equilibrium Voting on More than One Issue at a Time: Logrolling Special-Interest Groups and Their Impact on Political Equilibrium Bureaucracy and the Supply of Public Output
7	Midterm Examination
8	Cost-Benefit Analysis and Government Investments (Pg. 226 – 257) The Budget Process Economic Analysis for the Budget Process: Achieving the Least-Cost Means of Accomplishing an Authorized Objective Cost-Benefit Analysis Analysis of Government Investments: Cost-Benefit analysis in Practice
9	Social Security and Social Insurance (Pg. 311 – 356) Social Security in the United States The Social Security Retirement System Social Security Replacement Rates The Return to Workers: How Do Pension Benefits Compare with the Taxes That Workers Pay? Demographic Change and the Future of Social Security Proposals to Reform Social Security: Maintaining Benefits Versus Partial Privatization The Impact of Social Security on Savings and Work Incentives Health Insurance for the Elderly: Medicare Unemployment Insurance
10	Introduction to Government Finance (Pg. 412 – 441) Purpose and Consequences of Government Finance Principles of Taxation How Should the Burden of Government Finance Be Distributed? Criteria for Evaluating Alternative Methods of Government Finance Alternatives to Taxation Government Enterprise
11	Taxation, Prices, Efficiency, and the Distribution of Income (Pg. 445 – 478) Lump-Sum Taxes: A Benchmark Standard for Comparison The Impact of Taxes on Market Prices and Efficiency Further Analysis of Tax Incidence General Equilibrium Analysis of the Excess Burden and Incidence of Taxes Taxes, Government Expenditures, and the Distribution of Income
12	Budget Balance and Government Debt (Pg. 489 – 521) The Federal Budget Balance The Impact of Recessions and Public Policies Economic Effects of the Federal Budget Balance Government Debt Burden of the Debt National Saving and Government Budget Balance
13	The Theory of Income Taxation (Pg. 526 – 554) Comprehensive Income: The Haig-Simons Definition A General Tax on Comprehensive Income: Economic Effects of a Flat-Rate Income Tax Labor Market Analysis of Income Taxation Taxation of Interest Income and its Effect on Saving Market Analysis of Taxation on Interest and Investment Income
14	Review for the final exam

Prerequisite(s):	Introduction to Economics.
Textbook:	David N. Hyman, Public Finance, 11th edition, Cengage Learning2014 ISBN 978-1-285-17395-5 or later edition.
Other References:
Laboratory Work:
Computer Usage:
Others:	No

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

1	Thorough understanding of public finance principles and concepts.
2	Provide the necessary tools to becoming masters of public policy implementation.
3	Understand the underlying practical trade-offs associated with public finance.
4	Prepare the students to become informed consumers.
5	Provide the students with the tools and concepts to engage constructively in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of public finance policies.

COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO... PROGRAM COMPETENCIES (Blank : no contribution, 1: least contribution ... 5: highest contribution)

No	Program Competencies	Cont.
Bachelor in Economics (3 years) Program

COURSE EVALUATION METHOD

Method	Quantity	Percentage
Homework	10	1
Midterm Exam(s)	1	30
Final Exam	1	50
Attendance		10
	Total Percent:	100%

ECTS (ALLOCATED BASED ON STUDENT WORKLOAD)

Activities	Quantity	Duration(Hours)	Total Workload(Hours)
Course Duration (Including the exam week: 16x Total course hours)	16	3	48
Hours for off-the-classroom study (Pre-study, practice)	16	4	64
Mid-terms	1	1	1
Assignments	10	1.1	11
Final examination	1	1	1
Other			0
Total Work Load:			125
Total Work Load/25(h):			5
ECTS Credit of the Course:			5