Course 2012-2013 a.y.

Course Objectives

How do politics and institutions affect economics? The course is designed to provide the participants with an introduction to contemporary political institutions and to modern political economics. The aim is to understand the main features of contemporary democracies, to explain how economic policies are determined, and to analyze how these policies may differ according to the underlying political institutions. This course analyzes how political and electoral incentives may influence economic policies, and focuses on how these differences in economic policies may arise from political institutions, in particular electoral rules and regime types.

Course Content Summary

• The impact of political institutions on decision-making, with particular focus on the role of party systems, executive-legislative relations, electoral systems, interest groups, division of power and the mass media.
• Tools of political economics: voting models.
• Electoral rules and electoral competition: single-district proportional elections, multiple-district majoritarian elections. Broad versus targeted redistribution.
• The importance of political selection and politicians’ incentives: empirical analysis 

Detailed Description of Assessment Methods

Students have two options. They may take the exam in two written parts: a 1st partial exam and a 2nd partial exam which cover the first half and the second half of the course, respectively. In this case the exam is considered as passed only if both exams are passed. Alternatively, they may take a general exam covering the entire course material.

Textbooks

• A. LIJPHART, Patterns of Democracy, Yale University Press, seconda edizione, 2012

• Lecture slides (and exact syllabus) available at: http://www.tommasonannicini.eu/