ECON4620 – Public Economics - Taxation
Course description
Schedule, syllabus and examination date
Course content
This course is equivalent with ECON3620 – Public Economics - Taxation
The main objective of the course is to discuss the use of taxes and public expenditures for promoting socially efficient resource allocation and a desirable income distribution. The analysis of tax policy will highlight on the one hand harmful market effects of taxes and on the other hand the role of taxes in supporting public provision of goods and services. The course covers tax incidence and efficiency cost of taxation, optimal taxation, income and firm taxation and taxing wealth.
Learning outcome
You should know
- central concepts and basic models of modern public economics based on second best welfare theory
- major actual policies and examples of issues currently on the political agenda
- key concepts characterising types, properties, and effects of taxes and describing publicly provided goods, market imperfections, and second best constraints?
- key models such as the Mirrlees model of taxation
Skills
You should be able to
- explain the economic contents and trade-offs captured by the models
- discuss the assumptions, relevance, and limitations of different empirical methods
- identify and analyse policy problems in public economics
- assess arguments appearing in the policy debate
Competence
You should
- be able to read and understand project reports and journal articles that make use of the concepts and methods that are introduced in the course
- be able to make use of the course content in your own academic work, for example in analyses that are part of the master’s thesis
Admission to the course
Students admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.
Students not admitted to the Master’s programme in Economics or the Master’s programme in Economic Theory and Econometrics (Samfunns?konomisk analyse), can apply for admission to one of our study programmes, or apply for guest student status.
Formal prerequisite knowledge
- ECON3220 – Microeconomics 3 / ECON4220 – Microeconomics 3, or equivalent.
Recommended previous knowledge
- Students who do not have ECON3120 – Mathematics 2: Calculus and Linear Algebra / ECON4120 – Mathematics 2: Calculus and Linear Algebra or equivalent, are advised not to take this course.
Overlapping courses
- 10 credits overlap with S?K495.
- 10 credits overlap with SO?495.
- 10 credits overlap with S?K496.
- 10 credits overlap with ECON496.
- 10 credits overlap with ECON3620 – Public Economics - Taxation.
Teaching
Lectures and seminars.
At the start of the semester, the course reponsible can update the syllabus list by replacing up to 3 articles, without the scope and thematic content of the syllabus changing significantly.
The syllabus also includes any lecture notes that are made available during the semester.
Examination
A 3-hour written school exam.
Exam papers with comments from examiner
Examination support material
Usage of a dictionary during the examination is allowed, subject to prior inspection by SV-info.?See guidelines for further details.
Language of examination
The examination text is given in English. You may submit your response in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.
Resit an examination
If you are sick or have another valid reason for not attending the regular exam, we offer a postponed exam later in the same semester.
See also our information about resitting an exam.
Students who wish to take the exam again in a later semester are not guaranteed that the course will be given with the same content and syllabus, or that the form of assessment will be the same.
More about examinations at UiO
- Use of sources and citations
- Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
- Withdrawal from an exam
- Illness at exams / postponed exams
- Explanation of grades and appeals
- Resitting an exam
- Cheating/attempted cheating
You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.