Public Finance and Economics

Code:

1GE402

Acronym:

EFP

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Economics

Instance: 2022/2023 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Web Page:	http://sigarra.up.pt/fep/pt/ucurr_geral.ficha_uc_view?pv_ocorrencia_id=386380
Responsible unit:	Agrupamento Científico de Economia
Course/CS Responsible:	Bachelor in Business Administration

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
LGES	74	Bologna Syllabus since 2012	3	-	3	42	81

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

Learning outcomes and competences

On successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

-Critically analyzing public policy and financial activity of the State, its nature, its determinants and restrictions;

-Understanding political arguments and realizing who decides the priorities of public policies;

- Arguing about the budgetary procedures in Portugal;

-Understanding how and why a subject should be seen as "public problem" requiring government response.

Working method

Presencial

Pre-requirements (prior knowledge) and co-requirements (common knowledge)

 

Program

Part 1: Origins of the State and its functions

1-Theories about the origin of the State

2-Types of governance

3-Scope and structure of the public sector in Portugal

4-Reasons for the collective choice

4.1- Forms of State intervention and its economic functions

4.2-Allocative efficiency

4.3- Equity in distribution


Part 2: Theory of Public Choice and political decision

5-The challenge of the Theory of Public Choice to orthodox thinking

6- The role of politicians, bureaucrats and interest groups and the clash of values, interests and visions

7- A summary approach to voting rules in direct and representative democracies

8- The manipulation of democratic agenda
8.1- The voting paradox
8.2- The market of votes (logrolling)

9- Economic and financial constitutionalism

Part 3: Financial Administration of the State

10- General view of the financial management of the State

11- The fiscal State and its budget

11.1- Tax systems

11.2 -Taxes and other sources of State revenue

11.3- Brief characterization of the Portuguese tax system

11.4- State Budget in Portugal and its legal context

12- Public Debt

12.1- Notion and types of public debt

12.2- Major problems of public debt

Mandatory literature

Fernandes, Abel Luís da Costa; A economia das finanças públicas. ISBN: 978-972-40-4337-1
Fernandes, Abel Luís da Costa; Economia pública. ISBN: 978-972-618-652-6
Diário da República; ; Lei do Enquadramento Orçamental, última revisão
Stiglitz, Joseph E.; New perspectives on public finance: recent achievements and future challenges, Journal of Public Economics 86, 341–360, 2002
Diário da República; Orçamento do Estado, 2022

Complementary Bibliography

Stiglitz, Joseph E.; Economics of the public sector. ISBN: 0-393-96651-8
Cullis, John G.; Public finance and public choice. ISBN: 978-0-19-923478-3
Rosen, Harvey S.; Public finance. ISBN: 978-007-126788-5
Pereira Paulo Trigo 1959- 070; Economia e finanças públicas. ISBN: 978-972-592-492-1

Teaching methods and learning activities

Theoretical and practical classes, resorting to official documents where appropriate.
Accomplishment of illustrative exercises.
Throughout the program, some issues of Economics and Public Finance will be discussed. In this context, students with distributed evaluation must work in group, writing and defending an original essay of a maximum of 10 pages about one of the topics for discussion.

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Teste	70,00
Trabalho escrito	30,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	30,00
Frequência das aulas	40,00
Trabalho escrito	30,00
Total:	100,00

Eligibility for exams

Distributed evaluation consists of the realization and oral presentation of one research work (30%) and one test (70%).

The test will be in the same date as the regular exam.

The minimum grade in each evaluation component is 6 points.

Calculation formula of final grade

Distributed assessment
FG= 30% research work + 70% test

Evaluation by final examination

FG= 100% exam

Classification improvement

It will be according to the assessment rules. In this case students do not benefit from the component ' participation and attendance" even if they have fulfilled the requirements for it.