ECON3620 – Public Economics - Taxation

Schedule, syllabus and examination date

Course content

This course is equivalent with ECON4620 – Public Economics - Taxation

The main objective of the course is to discuss the use of taxes and public expenditures for promoting socially efficient resource allocation and a desirable income distribution. The analysis of tax policy will highlight on the one hand harmful market effects of taxes and on the other hand the role of taxes in supporting public provision of goods and services. The course covers tax incidence and efficiency cost of taxation, optimal taxation, income and firm taxation and taxing wealth.

Learning outcome

You should know

  • central concepts and basic models of modern public economics based on second best welfare theory
  • major actual policies and examples of issues currently on the political agenda
  • key concepts characterising types, properties, and effects of taxes and describing publicly provided goods, market imperfections, and second best constraints 
  • key models such as the Mirrlees model of taxation

Skills

You should be able to

  • explain the economic contents and trade-offs captured by the models
  • discuss the assumptions, relevance, and limitations of the model
  • identify the assumptions, relevance, and limitations of different empirical methods
  • identify and analyse policy problems in public economics assess arguments appearing in the policy debate

Competence

You should

  • be able to read and understand project reports and journal articles that make use of the concepts and methods that are introduced in the course
  • be able to make use of the course content in your own academic work, for example in analyses that are part of the master’s thesis

Admission to the course

Students at UiO must apply for courses in Studentweb.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

You can not attend this course if you have already passed specific ECON-courses at a higher level.

This course is not available for single course students

Formal prerequisite knowledge

Overlapping courses

Teaching

Lectures and seminars.

Examination

A 3-hour written school exam.

Previous exams

Exam papers with comments from examiner

Examination support material

Usage of a dictionary during the examination is allowed, subject to prior inspection by SV-info. See guidelines for further details.

Language of examination

The examination text is given in English. You may submit your response in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

Resit an examination

If you are sick or have another valid reason for not attending the regular exam, we offer a postponed exam later in the same semester.

There are restrictions on resitting this exam. See further information about resitting an exam.

Students who might wish to retake the exam later, are not guaranteed that the course is ever repeated with a similar reading list, nor that the exam arrangement will be the same.

More about examinations at UiO

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.

Last updated from FS (Common Student System) Mar. 29, 2024 7:54:48 AM

Facts about this course

Level
Bachelor
Credits
10
Teaching
Spring
Examination
Spring
Teaching language
English

Contact

SV-info