The module introduces students to the fundamentals of welfare economics, which are necessary to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying the implementation of public programs. In this perspective it tackles with the concept of Pareto efficiency, the theorems of welfare economics, the market failures and the social welfare function. It analyses the main aspects of public intervention , through public spending programs and the regulation of the private activities, from both a positive and a normative perspective.
The module introduces students to the main aspects of a public spending program, looking at the differences between private cost-benefit analysis and public cost-benefit analysis and considering the global effects of a program (direct, indirect, secondary and distributive). It also proposes the integration between theory and institutional reality, by means of the study of concrete examples of public intervention in the sectors of health and education .
Stiglitz J. Economia del settore pubblico, Hoepli, (2004), vol. 1, capp. 1-8.
Stiglitz J. Economia del settore pubblico (2004), Hoepli, vol. 2, capp. 2-4, 7.