PUBLIC POLICIES EVALUATION

SECS-P/03 - 9 CFU - 1° Semester

Teaching Staff

SALVATORE CREACO


Learning Objectives

1.Knowledge and under standing. The module intends to provide the student with useful knowledge and elements for comprehending the role of the economic appraisal of public projects in public decion-making process. In this context, the knowledge on ways of acquiring external Funds for financing public projects will be particularly important. The unifying element of this vast set of knowledge is the ability for the student to develop a better understanding of the many aspects that characterize the public allocation activity when significant financial constraints do exist.

 

 

2. Applying knowledge and under standing. Students will be able to fully assess the main questions linked to the implementation of a decision-making process when relevant financial constraints do exist and to promote the design and the execution of efficient public policies, as well as their in itinere evaluation, within a wide framework of compatibilities.

 

3. Making judgments. Students will acquire the ability to use the economic and financial approach to formulate an informed, critical and autonomous on the aspects that characterize the whole public decision-making process. In order to facilitate the formulation of this judgment, frontal lectures will offer in-depth discussion of the CBA techniques for specific sectors. This practice allows students to identify the main issues that prevent a proper economic assessment of public projects at all stages of the project cycle.

4. Communication skills. Students will be able to communicate in a clear and unambiguous manner the results of the economic evaluation of public projects by providing studies, charts and graphs. For this purpose, they will use the most appropriate technological knowledge for the presentation, the acquisition and the exchange of the relevant information. The acquisition of communication skills is formally entrusted to the oral test. The assessment of communication skills can also be ascertained through interactive interventions during the course of the frontal lectures.

5. Learning skills. The module aims to provide students with the relevant information in the field of selection, implementation and control of public projects. Students then will learn the main techniques for searching the relevant literature in public projects evaluation. Frontal lectures will permit to make a preliminary assessment of this ability. The formal evaluation of these learning skills is entrusted to the final test.


Course Structure

Frontal lessons.



Detailed Course Content

The role of evaluation in public decision-making process. Origin and theoretical foundations of cost-benefit analysis. Financial analysis and economic analysis of public projets. Eligibility and preferabilty of public projects. Criteria for choosing between alternative public projects. Cost-efficiency analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis of public projects. Economic evaluation of public projects and sustainable development. Italian and foreign experiences in the evaluation of public projects.



Textbook Information

1. Creaco S., Il ruolo della valutazione economica nel processo decisionale degli enti pubblici, c.u.e.c.m., Catania, 2013.

2. Formez, Guida all’analisi costi-benefici dei progetti di investimento, Roma, 2013.

3. Bosi P. (a cura di), Lezioni di Scienza delle finanze, VII ed., il Mulino, Bologna, 2015 (pp. 18-37; 44-50; 63-81)




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