GRA 5920 The Political Economy of Government: Public Policy and Reform - RE-SIT EXAMINATION

APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2013/2014

GRA 5920 The Political Economy of Government: Public Policy and Reform - RE-SIT EXAMINATION


Responsible for the course
Rune Sørensen

Department
Department of Economics

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
6

Language of instruction
English

Introduction
This is one of the School’s four courses dedicated to core questions in political economy, in this case public policy and the reform of public services. It is primarily designed for students taking the MSc in Political Economy and therefore assumes some knowledge of political processes and policy making.
The central themes include models of political decision-making, public service provision, redistribution policies, public administrating, state-owned companies and local government.

Learning outcome
The course addresses the following topics:

1.Theoretical models of political decision making
2. The impact of public institutions, including budget-making, use of state-owned companies, use of various types of competition, the growth of public spending and fiscal federalism.

Prerequisites
Bachelor degree qualifying for admission to the MSc Programme

Compulsory reading
Books:
Le Grand, Julian. 2003. Motivation, agency, and public policy : of knights and knaves, pawns and queens. Oxford University Press. kap.1-kap.8.

Collection of articles:
Compendium of Journal Articles

Other:
A list of compulsory readings will be provided on It's learning or in class.
During the course there may be hand-outs and other material on additional topics relevant for the course and the examination.



Recommended reading
Books:
Tsebelis, George. 2002. Veto players : how political institutions work. Princeton University Press. 317

Other:
Individual journal articles and book chapters available in the library and/or electronically will be recommended as further reading.


Course outline
Welfare Economics versus Political Economy
The median voter model (extended)
Distributive politics model
The swing-voter model
The political agency model
Bureaucracy and delegation
Bureaucracy, motivation and state-owned companies
Competition in the public sector
The growth of the public sector
Fiscal federalism and local government

Computer-based tools
It's learning

Learning process and workload
A course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of 160-180 hours.

Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on the course homepage/It's learning or text book.


Examination
Written 3 hour exam.

Specific information regarding student evaluation beyond the information given in the course description will be provided in class. This information may be relevant for requirements for term papers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several elements of the overall evaluation.


Examination code(s)
GRA 59204 for the written exam

Examination support materials
A bilingual dictionary.
Exam aids at written examinations are explained under exam information in our web-based Student handbook. Please note use of calculator and dictionary. http://www.bi.edu/studenthandbook/examaids


Re-sit examination
It is only possible to retake an examination when the course is next taught.
The assessment in some courses is based on more than one exam code.
Where this is the case, you may retake only the assessed components of one of these exam codes.
Where this is not the case, all of the assessed components of the course must be retaken.
All retaken examinations will incur an additional fee.


Additional information
Honor Code
Academic honesty and trust are important to all of us as individuals, and represent values that are encouraged and promoted by the honor code system. This is a most significant university tradition. Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the ideals of the honor code system, to which the faculty are also deeply committed.

Any violation of the honor code will be dealt with in accordance with BI’s procedures for cheating. These issues are a serious matter to everyone associated with the programs at BI and are at the heart of the honor code and academic integrity. If you have any questions about your responsibilities under the honor code, please ask.