114-0342/02 – The Economics of Public Choice (EVV)
| Gurantor department | Department of Economics | Credits | 5 |
| Subject guarantor | doc. Ing. Jan Janků, Ph.D. | Subject version guarantor | doc. Ing. Jan Janků, Ph.D. |
| Study level | undergraduate or graduate | Requirement | Choice-compulsory type B |
| Year | 1 | Semester | winter |
| | Study language | Czech |
| Year of introduction | 2019/2020 | Year of cancellation | |
| Intended for the faculties | EKF | Intended for study types | Follow-up Master |
Subject aims expressed by acquired skills and competences
- Providing a basic overview of the problems of public choice theory
- Students will be able to economically analyze voting behavior, the behavior of elected representatives, interest groups, and bureaucracies
- Students will acquire the knowledge to analyze political and other collective institutions in a basic way and will be competent to evaluate the appropriate settings for these institutions
- Students will acquire basic and key knowledge of economic policy making in representative democracies, taking into account the rational actor model
- Students will be able to describe and identify the inferior effects of inappropriately implemented economic policies
Teaching methods
Lectures
Seminars
Summary
The course is aimed at providing a basic overview of the problems of public choice theory. The course includes an analysis of voting behavior, the behavior of elected representatives, interest groups, and bureaucracy.
The course uses a rational choice model and the actors in political markets are
are understood as traditional "buyers" or "sellers", thus the course favours an economic way of thinking about political markets. The economic way of thinking about political markets and collective action allows us to analyse political and other collective institutions and also to assess the appropriateness of the settings of these institutions. The course thus partly covers the field of constitutional and institutional economics. The course also provides basic and key insights into economic policymaking in representative democracies, taking into account the rational actor model. Thus, it also deals with the inferior effects of implemented economic policies. Graduates of the course should be able to apply economic reasoning in a non-market environment and in a political markets at an intermediate level.
Compulsory literature:
Recommended literature:
Way of continuous check of knowledge in the course of semester
Written exam
E-learning
Studijní opory TpB:
https://lms.vsb.cz/course/view.php?id=72610
Other requirements
As part of the seminar, the student must write an essay on a given topic in the area of public choice theory
Prerequisities
Subject has no prerequisities.
Co-requisities
Subject has no co-requisities.
Subject syllabus:
1) Introduction to public choice theory
- The basic foundations of public choice theory
- Schools of public choice theory
2) The role of government in the economy
- Allocative inefficiency and market failure
- Effect of government on economic activity, size and efficiency of government
3) Elections and Electoral Systems (I)
- Classical, non-classical and economic theories of democracy
- Rational Choice Theory in public choice, rational ignorance and rational irrationality
4) Elections and Electoral Systems (II)
- Social Choice Theory in Public Choice
- Voting rules and alternative decision-making mechanisms
5) Political-economic cycle
- Political-economic cycles and their macroeconomic consequences
6) Political-budget cycle
- Political-budget cycles, inferior effects of budget deficits and government debt
7) Lobbying, interest groups and rent-seeking
- Lobbying and interest groups, the logic of collective action
- Politics as a mode of redistribution, economic theory of regulation
8) Theory of Bureaucracy
- Traditional and economic theory of bureaucracy
- Rational behaviour of bureaucracy, legislative control of bureaucracy
9) Constitutional political economy
- Social contracts
- Constitutional reforms
- Institutional economics - basics
10) Alternative approaches to the role of the state (I)
- Dictatorship and democracy
11) Alternative Approaches to the Role of the State (II)
- The Austrian School and anarcho-capitalism
12) Behavioral to public choice theory
- Behavioral approaches, the role of irrationality in public policy making
13-14) Experimental approaches to the study of public choice
- Experiment (Economic Classroom Experiment)
Conditions for subject completion
Occurrence in study plans
Occurrence in special blocks
Assessment of instruction