Learning outcomes of the course unit:
The purpose of the course is to provide students with the basic knowledge on the functioning of the public sector from a normative and positive point of view. The purpose of the course is to illustrate the main analytical tools of Welfare Economics including the reasons of public intervention in the economic markets. The course illustrates the main theories of Public Choice and the role of public sector in case of market failures (i.e. public goods and common resources, monopolies and natural monopolies, externalities and asymmetric information). The analysis will include also the Italian public finance (institution, revenues and expenses) in the EU context, the taxes and the tax burden on consumers, producers and markets as a whole. The final part of he course will give some fundamentals of welfare state and its main programmes.