Course goals
The course aims to (1) familiarize students with different approaches to the study of political economy, (2) different levels of analysis with a particular focus on individual interactions and local economies, (3) different visions for state bureaucracy and its goals, and (4) key concepts used by the scholars in the field of political economy. By the end of the course students will have tools to analyze real world problems critically and through the prism of different frameworks.
Course results
- Analyze key approaches to the study of political economy. List assumptions and predictions different frameworks make.
- Learn how to model interactions between individuals, firms, bureaucracies, nation states.
- Introduce students to key concepts of political economy: economic calculation, moral hazard, adverse selection, market failures, and different types of goods including public goods, private goods, toll goods (club goods) and common pool resources.
- Learn about different levels of analysis: individual, local, state, and international levels.
- Analyze the efficiency and quality of public administration through different lenses: monocentric and polycentric orders.
- Work in groups, facing time constraints.
- Synthesize, present, and defend results from group activities.
