Introduction to Public Policy & Institutional Analysis

Jonathan Pincus

Required Reading:

1. World Bank and VCCI (2011) “Vietnam in Transition: Changing Attitudes towards the Market and State,” Hanoi.

Lecture 02: Public Policy and Critical thinking

Jonathan Pincus

Required reading:

1. Jonathan Pincus (2010) “Policy Case Study: Milk Price Registration and Regulations in Vietnam: Will it Lower Milk Prices?” Fulbright School, September.

2. Series of articles by Cẩm Quyên and Trần Thủy

“Người tiêu dùng Việt Nam đang 'đốt' tiền mua sữa," http://vnn.vietnamnet.vn/

“Bó tay nhìn doanh nghiệp sữa móc túi người tiêu dung,” http://www.baomoi.com/

“Phơi bày thế giới ngầm kinh doanh sữa,” http://www.baomoi.com/

“Lợi nhuận kếch xù từ kinh doanh sữa vào tay ai?” http://cafef.vn/

Also:

1. Xuân Hương (2012) “Quản giá sữa ngay từ cửa khẩu” Vneconomy, March 29," ttp://vneconomy.vn

Lecture 3: From the right incentives to good motivation

Tran Thi Que Giang

Required reading:

1. Daniel Pink (2009) Drive: The Surprising Truth of What Motivates Us. Chapter 1: “The rise and fall of motivation,” Riverhead Books.

2. Ben Wilkinson & al. (2010): Beyond the Apex: Toward a System Level Approach to Higher Education Reform in Vietnam, extract of Part II: “Snapshot of Vietnamese higher education today”, FETP OCW

Lecture 04: What’s wrong?

Tran Thi Que Giang

Required reading:

1. Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner (2011) Superfreakeconomics. Chapter 3: “Unbelievable stories about apathy and altruism,” Harper Perennial.

2. Vu Thanh Tu Anh (2006), Xé rào ưu đãi đầu tư của các tỉnh, Thời báo kinh tế Sài gòn 23/3/2006, Hết Vinashin đến Vinalines, Thời báo kinh tế Sài gòn, 15/05/2012, http://www.thesaigontimes.vn

Lecture 05: Cost – Benefit Analysis

Tran Que Giang

Required reading:

1. Cass Sustein (2005) Laws of fears: Beyond the Precautionary Principle. Chapter 3: “Worst-Case Scenarios,” Cambridge University Press.

2. “Playing with fire”, Special report on “Financial Innovation”, The Economist, 25^th Feb 2012.

3. Hồng Phúc & Thanh Thương, Mức độ rút tiền tại ACB trong tầm kiểm soát, Thời báo kinh tế Sài gòn 15/05/2012, http://www.thesaigontimes.vn

4. A serial of articles:

Ngũ Anh Tuấn, Cần có biện pháp quản lý người ăn xin, Ninh Thuận online, 20/04/2012, http://baoninhthuan.com.vn

Lê Thanh, Cần quản lý người ăn xin, Nghệ An online, 16/04/2012, http://www.baonghean.vn

Lecture 06: The Endowment Effect

Jonathan Pincus

Required reading:

1. Dan Ariely (2008) Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions, Chapter 7, “The High Price of Ownership: Why We Overvalue What We Have,” New York: Harper Collins. 

Suggested reading:

1. Daniel Kahneman, Jack L. Knetsch and Richard H. Thaler (1991) “Anomalies: The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 5:1, 193-206.

Lecture 07: The Division of Labor and Gains from Trade

Jonathan Pincus

Required reading:

1. Greg Linden, Kenneth L. Kraemer, Jason Dedrick (2007) “Who Captures Value in a Global Innovation System? The case of Apple's iPod,” Personal Computing Industry Center (PCIC), University of California, Irvine, June.

Lecture 08: Path dependence - US health care reform and Vietnam hospital pricing

 
Jonathan Pincus

Required reading:

1. UNDP (2011) Dịch vụ xã hội phục vụ phát triển con người: Báo cáo Quốc gia về Phát triển Con người năm 2011 [Social Services for Human Development: National Human Development Report 2011], http://www.undp.org.vn

Suggested reading:

1. Atul Gawande (2009) “Getting There from Here: How Should Obama Reform Health Care?” The New Yorker, January 26.

Jonathan Pincus

Required reading:

1. Henderson, Mark (2013) “Using the Tools of Science to Improve Social Policy,” The Observer, May 13.

Jonathan Pincus

Required reading:

1. Eric Morris (2009) “London Congestion Charge [blog]” New York Times, October 13.

Suggested reading:

1. Jonathan Leape (2006) “The London Congestion Charge,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20:4, 157-176.

Lecture 11: Justice

Tran Thi Que Giang

Required reading:

1. Michael Sandel (2009) Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Chapter 1: “Doing the right thing.”

2. Vu Thanh Tu Anh (2011), “Thiếu công bằng trong tăng giá điện” Thời báo Kinh tế Sài Gòn, ngày 03/03/2011.

3. A serial of articles of Doan Van Vuong's Case

Lecture 12: Morality

Tran Thi Que Giang  

Required reading:

1. Michael Sandel (2009) Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Chapter 5: “What matters is the motive”

2. Pham Duy Nghia, “Người nghèo, chó dữ và những ông chủ giàu”, Tuổi trẻ ngày 30/01/2010 

3. Tuổi trẻ (2012), A serial of articles of Hoang Khuong journalist case

Groups 1-3

Groups 4-6

Lecture 3: Self-interest and the division of labor

Readings:

1. Adam Smith, Self-interest vs. benevolence as incentives: a selection from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book I chapter II. Edwin Cannan, ed. 1904. Library of Economics and Liberty.

Suggested reading:

1. Joseph Stiglitz (1998) Distinguished lecture on Economics in Government: "The Private Uses of Public Interests: Incentives and Institutions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring, 3-22.