The course Public Economics investigates the role of the public sector in the economic arena. It examines and analyzes in depth the interventions of the state in the operation of national economies and, in particular, taxation and public spending.

By the end of this course the students will have sufficient knowledge and economic understanding of the major issues concerning taxation and public spending. They will be able to explain why government intervention is needed, how it influences the behavior of the private sector and what the welfare effects of such influences are.

Furthermore, they will be able to express themselves in a professional manner on contemporary issues regarding state intervention, to use efficiently the acquired knowledge and understanding in order to support their view on specific aspects of taxation and public spending issues, to employ the acquired tools of economic analysis in the process of policy evaluation (e.g., public goods, externalities, income distribution, etc.). Furthermore, given the availability of statistical data bases concerning taxation and public spending, the students will be able to perform basic statistical and econometric analysis and thus provide empirical evidence on the issues that they investigate.