Bachelor
Winter Semester 2022/23
Lecturer:
Prof. Christina Felfe de Ormeño, Ph.D.
Dr. Prateek Chandra Bhan, Ph.D.
Tutor:
Maike Schlosser, M. Sc.
Syllabus
Public Policy 2022-23 Overview:
Content:
This course provides an introduction into public economics/finance. Public finance studies the role of the government in the economy. It basically answers four questions: When should the government intervene? How might the government intervene? What are the effects of those interventions? How to predict and assess them? Why do governments choose to intervene in the way that they do?
The aim of the course is to provide students with an understanding of the process of making public policies of the government and to endow them with the necessary skills to analyse, assess and/or design public policies. Students will learn the core theoretical models of public economics as well as modern empirical methods of public finance and econometrics. The focus will not lie on the theoretical details, but rather on the beauty of the different methods to provide answers to public policy questions.
The lecture will cover the following topics:
- Introduction into public economics/finance
- Theoretical tools
- Empirical tools
- Behavioural insights to public policy
- Externalities
- Public goods
- The cost-benefit analysis
Structure in Winter Term 2022/23:
The course will be offered in-person. The lecture slides will be made available to participants via WueCampus roughly every week right before the relevant lecture has taken place. There will be two tutorial groups. The lectures along with the tutorials will be in English.
The tutorial will take place twice a week. The problem sets will be uploaded to WueCampus one week in advance of the respective tutorial in English. Students are strongly encouraged to practice these problem sets in advance. We will discuss the solutions during the tutorial, which will later be shared over WueCampus.
In addition to the problem sets, we will share exercise test sheets containing some multiple choice questions (MCQs) as part of some lectures, which can help you prepare for the final examination. These tests will happen during the lectures. Participation in these tests is purely voluntary but students are encouraged. By participating in all four of these tests and performing well, students can receive extra points in the exam.
Objective:
Participants should be acquainted with the core theoretical models of public economics and well-informed about the basic empirical methods used nowadays for policy evaluation.
Literature:
Main reference for the lecture is Gruber, J. (2016): Public Finance and Public Policy, 5th edition, Worth Publishers, New York.
Supplementary literature (as and where indicated in the lecture slides):
Daniel, K. (2017). Thinking, fast and slow.
Thaler, R. H., & Ganser, L. J. (2015). Misbehaving: The making of behavioral economics.
Examination:
Written exam (60 min.) - The exam will be made available in English and German. Students have the freedom to answer in German or English or both. The MCQ test/exercises will also be made available in English and German on an online questionnaire. Students are thereby requested to carry a laptop/tablet/smart phone in the lecture.
Prerequisites:
Basic knowledge in microeconomics and econometrics.
Tutorials
The tutorials take place on Thurday and Friday 8-10 h (Room: HS 317)
Beginning: 10.11.2022 and 11.11.2022
Summer Semester 2023
Lecturer
Dozent: Dr. Mario Bossler
Sprache (Language): Deutsch (or optional in English, see English description below)
Organisation:
1. Verteilung der Seminarthemen am 1.April per E-Mail. Präferenzen der Studierenden finden dabei Berücksichtigung.
2. Blockveranstaltung in zweiter Semesterwoche als Einführung des Dozenten in die Seminarthemen
3. Blockveranstaltung mit Abschlussvorträgen im Juni
4. Frist für die Abgabe der Seminararbeiten ist am 30. Juli
(Die expliziten Termine für 2. und 3. werden in Absprache mit den Studierenden per Doodle festgelegt.)
Beispielthemen:
- Einführung des gesetzlichen Mindestlohns
- Sinkende Tarifbindung
- Steigender Fachkräftebedarf und die Folgen für den Arbeitsmarkt
- Minijobs: Fluch oder Segen?
- Der Anteil von Frauen in Führungspositionen
- Homeoffice und die Veränderung der Arbeitsgestaltung
- Fluchtzuwanderung und die Folgen für hiesige Arbeitskräfte
Die Benotung wird sich aus der Präsentation (40%) und der schriftlichen Seminararbeit (60%) zusammensetzen.
Bei Fragen können Sie sich gerne per E-Mail an mich wenden: mario.bossler@gmail.com
Lecturer
Lecturer: Dr. Mario Bossler (mario.bossler@gmail.com)
Semester: Summer 2023
Organization: the course will be taught in the lab on a weekly basis, first date is 18 April 2023
Room and time: weekly on Tuesdays, 14:15-15:45 in CIP-Pool I (R 409)
Course language: English
Module:
- Wirtschaftswissenschaft (ab PO 2021): Platzhalter „Arbeit & Gesellschaft“ mit 5 ECTS
- Wirtschaftswissenschaft (vor PO 2021): Platzhalter „Ausgewählte Probleme der VWL“ mit 5 ECTS
- Wirtschaftsinformatik: Platzhalter „Ausgewählte Probleme der VWL“ mit 5 ECTS
- Wirtschaftsmathematik: Platzhalter „Ausgewählte Probleme der Wirtschaftswissenschaft“ mit 5 ECTS
The aim of the course Empirical Labor Economics is to enable participants…
- to collect and prepare data for empirical analyses,
- to conduct their own empirical analyses on current issues in labor economics,
- to critically analyze data and interpret results,
- and to present them in a scientific form.
The main focus of the course is on the most common micro econometric methods that are used in empirical labor market research (but also in other applied fields of economics). For each topic, an introduction to the statistical methods to be used, in particular their adequate application and interpretation. These methods are then applied to an exemplary research question. The application is done on the basis of a micro dataset together with the students who are introduced to the statistical package Stata.
Contents:
- Introduction to Stata
- Introduction to empirical research: How to carry out an empirical project?
- Multiple regression
- Matching
- Instrumental Variables
- Panel data methods
Grading:
Short assignments allow students to conduct their own empirical analyses.
Final grade: Final exam of 60 minutes.
General information:
The Chair of Labour Economics supervises Bachelor's theses in the area of labour, education, and migration economics. Topics usually relate to actual policy concerns, examples are discrimination, early child development, education, integration of immigrants, labour supply, peer effects, just to name a few. Theses should be of empirical nature using either primary (preferrably related to social politics in the region) or secondary data. The thesis can be written either in German or English. For more information regarding the formal and content-related structure of the thesis, see: Thesis Guideline
Former thesis‘ topics:
- The impact of parental benefits on parental gender norms
- Gender stereotypes and occupational decisions of adolescents
- Intergenerational changes for migrants in Germany
- Acceptance of a universal basic income
- Incorporating social identity into economic analysis
Procedure:
It is highly recommended to attend the bachelor seminar in labour economics (5 ECTS, Module "Ausgewählte Probleme der VWL") where the students can discuss their ideas, elaborate a literature review and familiarize themselves with the appropriate empirical methodology. The thesis will build on these skills.
There is no list with prespecified topics, but each students approaches the chair with his or her own idea. Following a written application including a short description of the idea and the motivation as well as a transcript of courses and grades, conversations with the members of the chair will help to finetune the exact topic. A close supervision is guaranteed and desired throughout the whole process of thesis writing.
