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  6. EC5505: Applied Public Policy

EC5505: APPLIED PUBLIC POLICY (2015-2016)

Last modified: 25 Mar 2016 11:38


Course Overview

This course focuses on the design, implementation and evaluation of various aspects of public policy, while developing a deep understanding of how the techniques used draw on economic theory, and their associated strengths and weaknesses. The course will include a range of micro- and macro-policy applications to develop students’ skills in applying relevant techniques to real world problems. Students will benefit from a number of external lectures from policy makers in the Scottish Government, the EU and leading research centres will provide further examples of the application of the techniques in the real world.

Course Details

Study Type Postgraduate Level 5
Term Second Term Credit Points 15 credits (7.5 ECTS credits)
Campus None. Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Professor Catia Montagna

Qualification Prerequisites

None.

What courses & programmes must have been taken before this course?

  • Either MRes Applied Economics (Studied) or MSc Applied Economics (Studied)
  • Any Postgraduate Programme (Studied)

What other courses must be taken with this course?

None.

What courses cannot be taken with this course?

None.

Are there a limited number of places available?

No

Course Description

The course will cover the following content: Market Failure and the Role of Government Policy-Making and the Roles of Microeconomic Policy Analysis Welfare economics foundations; first-best and second-best settings; efficiency and distributional considerations Principles of project appraisal: economic efficiency; inter-temporal choices and discounting; equity considerations. Economic appraisal from private and public perspectives Measuring Benefits and Costs in practice Econometric approaches to policy evaluation, including social and quasi natural experiments. The course will include a range of applications to show how the methods may be applied in practice, help develop the students’ skills in applying the techniques to practical real world problems and show their limitations. Applications may include appraisals of a large scale infrastructure project, evaluations of Government policies such as the minimum wage, welfare-to-work policies, trade policies, electricity market reform etc A number of external lectures from policy makers in the Scottish Government will provide further examples of the application of the techniques in the real work.

Contact Teaching Time

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

Teaching Breakdown

More Information about Week Numbers


Details, including assessments, may be subject to change until 30 August 2024 for 1st term courses and 20 December 2024 for 2nd term courses.

Summative Assessments

1st attempt: 1 two hour written examination (60%); continuous assessment (40%) consisting of two individual assignments (20% each) with a word count of up to 2000 words each. Resit: 1 two hour written examination (100%) capped at CAS 9.

Formative Assessment

There are no assessments for this course.

Feedback

None.

Course Learning Outcomes

None.
 

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