Undergraduate - UnitECC3810 - Public finance

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Business and Economics
Organisational Unit	Department of Economics
Offered	Clayton First semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Professor Ranjan Ray

Synopsis

The relationship between the public and private sectors is explored from the perspective of both public finance and political economy. Theories of public expenditure and revenue generation are introduced to assess the proper scope of the public sector. Additionally, theories of public choice are presented to examine the effectiveness and decision-making process of the public sector.

Outcomes

The learning goals associated with this unit are to:

understand the basic economic concepts and principles applied in the public finance area
analyse specific policy issues in the area of public expenditure and taxation from the perspectives of both traditional public finance and public choice
critically evaluate contemporary public debate on topics in public finance
understand the usefulness and limitations of economic analysis in the public finance area
identify both market failure and government failure and understand the causes of each.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 40%
Examination: 60%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Independent study may include associated readings, assessment and preparation for scheduled activities. The unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Professor Ranjan Ray

Prerequisites

ECC2000 or ECC5900 or ECX9000

Prohibitions

ECC4381