66250 - Public Policy And Redistribution

Learning outcomes

The course is devoted to the study of public intervention in the economy and aims to provide the main theoretical tools and basic institutional knowledge for understanding the redistributive effects of public policies. At the end of the course the student: knows how to use the theoretical and methodological tools for understanding the impact that public policies have on income distribution; is able to apply a comparative approach to the analysis of the Italian case in the context of other economies, industrialised and non-industrialised; knows the basic economic elements of specific sectors of welfare state expenditure (social insurance, social assistance, social safety nets).

Course contents

Part I - Role of the state and ethical foundations of redistribution

Introduction to the theories of distributive justice: libertarianism, unanimity and Pareto efficiency, utilitarianism, Rawls's theory of justice and the egualitarian principle, functioning and capabilities.

Part II - Inequality and poverty measurement

The axiomatic approach. Statistical measures and welfare-theoretic indices. Inequality and social welfare. Equivalence scales: basic definitions and methods of computing. Absolute and relative poverty. Poverty lines and methods of determination. Standard measures and the axiomatic approach. Monetary transfers, poverty reduction and indicators of target efficiency.

Part III - Income tax Progressivity measurement

Redistribution and progressivity of the personal income tax and social transfers. Local and global measures of progressivity. Monetary transfers, poverty reduction and indicators of target efficiency.

Part IV - The expenditure for the welfare state

Theoretical justifications for welfare state expenditure. Ways of provision of social expenditure (in cash, in kind and voucher), Pensions. Social assistance.

Readings/Bibliography

Recommended reading:

M. Baldini, S. Toso, Diseguaglianza, povertà e politiche pubbliche, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009, 2nd edition.

M. Baldini, S. Toso, I fondamenti etici della redistribuzione, teaching material available on VIRTUALE.

P. Bosi, (a cura di), Corso di Scienza delle finanze, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2023, 9th edition [chapters I.1, II.1, III.1-2-3-5, VIII.1-2-4].

Additional teaching material will be available on VIRTUALE during the course.

Teaching methods

Lectures.

Assessment methods

All students take a written exam. Examples of past exam questions will be made available on line.

Students attending the lectures are expected to write and present an essay, which will be chosen within a predetermined list. The mark obtained in the essay (the range goes from 1 to 2) has to be added to the mark of the written exam to get the final one.

The maximum possible score is 30 cum laude. The grade is graduated as follows:

<18 failed
18-23 sufficient
24-27 good
28-30 very good
30 e lode excellent

Teaching tools

A video-projector will be used in most of the lectures, for presentations with Power Point files.

Office hours

See the website of Stefano Toso