Class # 1: Economic Rationale for Public Sector Roles and Interventions
Huynh The Du
* Market failures due to market power, asymmetric information, externality, public goods, equality, macro imbalances
* Correct market failures and mobilize resources for the public sector operation
* The changing role of government in transitional economies
Readings:
1. Joseph E. Stiglitz (2000), Chapter 1
2. Huynh The Du (2013), The role and the nature of the state
POLICY MEMO #1 (THE BIG DIG) DISTRIBUTED, DUE ON 2/4.
Class # 2: Public Choice
Huynh The Du
* Differences between collective actions and individual actions
* Government models
Readings:
1. Huynh The Du and Do Thien Anh Tuan (2014), "Public Investment and Problem of Lobster Budger", pg. 1-6.
2. Joseph E. Stiglitz (2000), Chapter 7
3. Xuan Trung – Quang Thien (2005), Dumping coal, Excerpt in Nights before Doi Moi, Tuoi Tre Newspaper (distributed in class).
The course examines policy options, with their strategic trade-offs and operational implications, for the design and implementation of public sector roles and public interventions in an economy. The first part focuses on the public resource mobilization via three main sources including taxes, user charges and borrowing. The second part introduces the rationale for the public sector intervention, ways to correct market failures in a complete spectrum including: public sector production and provision, state-owned enterprises, private sector participation or public private partnership, and regulation. This part also analyses the political economy of the public sector, measurement of government intervention efficiency, the despair cycle: from the market failures to government failures and vice versa. The final part looks at the roles of different government levels and intergovernmental relations. The course emphasizes utilization of theoretical and applied techniques in a comparative context for evaluation of the impact of alternative resource mobilization and expenditure policies on efficient allocation, social equity, and economic stability.
