Economics of the Public Sector (B-KUL-HMA75A)

6 ECTSEnglish39 First term
Maes Marjan (coordinator) |  Van Puyenbroeck Tom
OC Business Administration FEB Campus Brussel

 

This course gives insight into:

- the rationales for the existence of a publicly (versus privately) organised welfare state

-the functioning, structure and performance of EU-welfare states, as well as an overview of the most important challenges (pensions, health care) they face

-the open method of coordination (soft governance by objectives when it comes to social policies and labour market institutions) and the need for budgetary discipline at the state level (Stability Growth Pact, European Semester, Fiscal Pact) in a monetary union, like the eurozone.  

It provides students with an “economic tool-kit” with criteria for assessing costs and benefits of public policies.  A central goal of the course is to enable students to analyse and evaluate reforms of social insurance and tax systems in EU countries.

 

This course evaluates the following learning outcomes:

The student

1.3  Distinguishes between the main variables in public finance

1.4. Describes and analyses the relationships between public finance variables

4.1. Translates recent events and facts in public economics in Europe and globally in the conceptual and theoretical frame of public economics

10.2 Quantifies costs, benefits, and their relationships of public policy and choices made therein

 

If you want to follow this course, it is advisable to have completed the following courses first:

Microeconomics

Macroeconomics

Activities

6 ects. Economics of the Public Sector (B-KUL-HMA75a)

6 ECTSEnglishFormat: Lecture39 First term
OC Business Administration FEB Campus Brussel

  • Welfare economics framework: welfare theorem and market failure, public versus private insurance
  • Income inequality and poverty in EU countries: Causes and trends
  • Evolution of social expenditures in EU countries: trends and projections
  • Sources to finance social protection in EU countries: VAT, capital income taxation, labour income taxation, real estate and wealth taxation
  • Typology of welfare states
  • Performance and efficiency of the welfare state
  • Pensions, ageing and early retirement
  • Health care systems in EU countries
  • Health care system in the US and the impact of the Affordable Care Act-reform
  • Labour market policies and their impact on unemployment and poverty in EU countries
  • Child care and family policies and their impact on fertility, child wellbeing and female labour supply
  • Open method of coordination: soft governance for social and labour market policies at EU level
  • Deficits and debts in the EU: the Stability and Growth Pact, European Semester and Fiscal Pact

Recommended reading: https://webapps.odisee.be/Ancor/SSM/Pages/BekijkSSM.aspx?OID=24077

Recommended reading:

  • Pestieau, P. The welfare state in the European Union: Economic and social perspectives, Oxford University Press, 2018 (second edition).
  • Gruber, J. Public Finance and public policy, MIT, 2019 (Sixth edition)..

Additional material on Toledo (research articles, reports from EC and OECD)

Evaluation

Evaluation: Economics of the Public Sector (B-KUL-H75076)

Type : Partial or continuous assessment with (final) exam during the examination period
Description of evaluation : Written, Paper/Project
Type of questions : Open questions
Learning material : None


1) Written closed-book exam of 2 hours. The exam consists of open questions. These may be rather theoretical questions. Inspired by topical issues, the teacher may also ask students to analyse and assess the potential impact of specific (hypothetical or on-going) reforms concerning the welfare state in EU countries.  Most importantly, students have to demonstrate that they understand and reflect critically on issues related to the social, labour market and taxation policies in EU countries and they can apply this to specific case studies.

Examples of exam questions will be available on Toledo. 

There will be one exam question that is more challenging, directly inspired by one of the research articles available on Toledo and that counts for 2 points.

This part counts for 16 points.

2) Each student has to submit a written report (maximum 4 pages), following precise instructions that will be available on Toledo.  The aim of the exercise is to make the student familiar with academic research, to enable him to identify discussions and gaps in the existing research literature, to learn him to adopt a critical attitude when reading research articles and to train him to produce a coherent well-structured text.  The student focuses on a specific research question that has already been investigated in 3 different peer-reviewed articles in the research literature.  It relates to a topic that belongs to one of the fields covered in the course.  The report may be regarded as a critical synthesis of the selected articles or a “very limited” literature review. The student is evaluated on the quality of this report that he submits at latest on the day of his exam.

This part counts for 4 points.

 

In total, the student obtains a mark for this course that is the sum of his mark on 1) and 2)

The features of the evaluation and determination of grades are identical to those of the first examination opportunity, as described above.