30313 - ECONOMICS OF INSTITUTIONS AND CULTURE
CLEAM - CLEF - BESS-CLES - BIEF - BIEM
Department of Economics
Course taught in English
CLEAM (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/02) -
CLEF (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/02) -
BESS-CLES (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/02) -
BIEF (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/02) -
BIEM (6 credits - II sem. - OP | SECS-P/02)
Course Objectives
How do politics and institutions affect the economy? The course is designed to provide students with an introduction to contemporary political economics. The goal is to understand the political and social determinants of economic performance in advanced and developing countries. The first half of the course focuses on advanced democracies. Here we study how political and electoral incentives of governments shape economic policies, and on how differences in economic policies may arise from political institutions, such as electoral rules and regime types. The second half of the course studies how political institutions and cultural traits interact with economic development, trying to understand why some countries prosper and others fail to do so. We also explore what lessons from State formation in European political history are still relevant for developing countries today.
Intended Learning Outcomes
Click here to see the ILOs of the course BIEF
Knowledge and understanding
At the end of the course student will be able to do:
Know the main concepts to explain policy formation in advanced democracies, and the interaction between institutions and economic development in emerging countries.
Applying knowledge and understanding
At the end of the course student will be able to do:
Assess the challenges and priorities to promote economic development in developing countries, assess the long term consequences of institutional reforms, and the long term determinants of economic performance of different countries
Course Content Summary
- Political incentives and fiscal policy.
- Forms of political participation: voting, lobbying and protests.
- Electoral rules and electoral competition.
- The impact of political institutions on decision-making, with a particular emphasis on the role of party systems, executive-legislative relations, electoral systems, interest groups, checks and balances.
- Political corruption: what are its causes and how to discourage it.
- Causes and consequences of democratizations in developing countries.
- Interactions between formal and informal institutions.
- State formation and state capacity.
Detailed Description of Assessment Methods
Written exam. The detailed grading system will be provided at the beginning of the course
Textbooks
Readings are provided at the beginning of the course.
Last change 13/06/2016 15:48