Public Economics

Explore key concepts in public economics, from welfare foundations and market failures to taxation and fiscal policy. Understand how these principles shape economic policies and impact distributive justice.

Public Economics

1 Welfare Foundations of Economic Policies

  1. Public Economics and Welfare Economics: Interface
  2. Concept of Welfare
  3. Efficiency and Pareto Optimality
  4. Utility Possibility Frontier
  5. Application of Welfare Criteria in Public Economics

2 Market Failure and Government Failure

  1. Market Efficiency
  2. Market Failure
  3. Externality
  4. Imperfect Competition
  5. Public Goods
  6. Asymmetric Information
  7. Government Failure

3 Equity and Justice

  1. Normative Theories of State
  2. Theories of Justice
  3. Equity
  4. Behavioural Public Economics
  5. Limitations of Market Outcomes

4 Theory of Public Goods

  1. Classification of Goods
  2. Characteristics of Public Goods
  3. Theory of Public Goods
  4. Non Private Goods
  5. Free Rider’s Problem
  6. Local and Global Goods

5 Externalities and Solutions

  1. Externalities (Negative & Positive)
  2. Internalisation of Externalities
  3. Policy Instruments

6 Local and Global Public Goods

  1. Local Public Goods
  2. Tiebout Model
  3. Club Goods
  4. Global Public Goods
  5. Peace and Security
  6. Global Peace Index (GPI)
  7. GPG Perspectives on Environment and Poverty Reduction
  8. Knowledge as GPG

7 Theory of Social Choice

  1. Individual and Collective Decision Making
  2. Individual Values and Social Choice
  3. Social States and Individual Ordering
  4. Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem
  5. Voting Mechanisms
  6. Concepts of Voting
  7. Types of Voting Systems
  8. Strategic Voting

8 Public Choice Theory

  1. Mechanism for Allocating Resources
  2. Collective Decision Making
  3. Government Failure

9 Mechanism Design

  1. Asymmetric Information
  2. Mechanism Design
  3. Auction Design
  4. Voting Mechanism
  5. Theoretical Framework for Mechanism Design

10 Direct and Indirect Taxation

  1. Direct and Indirect Taxes: Concepts
  2. Direct Taxes
  3. Indirect Taxes
  4. Impact of Taxes on Factors of Production
  5. International Taxation

11 Optimal Taxation

  1. Optimal Taxation System
  2. Optimal Commodity Taxation
  3. Optimal Income Taxation

12 Non-Tax Revenues

  1. Sources of Non-Tax Revenue
  2. Non-Tax Revenue Receipts: Division Mechanism and Trends
  3. Economic Consequences of Non-Tax Revenues

13 Theory of Public Expenditure

  1. Classification of Public Expenditure
  2. Size of Public Expenditure: Theoretical Stance
  3. Theory of Public Expenditure
  4. Efficiency-Equity Trade-off

14 Patterns of Public Expenditure in India

  1. Concept of Public Expenditure
  2. Factors of Influence
  3. Canons of Public Expenditure
  4. Trends in Public Expenditure in India
  5. Revenue Expenditure and Capital Expenditure
  6. Plan Expenditure and Non-Plan Expenditure
  7. Reforms in Public Expenditure in India

15 Deficits and Debt

  1. Concepts of Budget Deficit
  2. Financing Mechanism of Budget Deficit
  3. Public Debt
  4. Debt Sustainability
  5. Public Debt Management

16 Theory of Public Sector Pricing

  1. Relationship between Elasticity and Prices
  2. Rationale for the Pricing Policy of Public Sector Enterprises
  3. Natural Monopoly and Government Intervention
  4. Marginal Cost Pricing
  5. Multi-Part Tariff
  6. Peak Load Pricing

17 Theory of Regulation

  1. Theoretical Developments: An Overview
  2. Perfect Competition
  3. Imperfect Competition
  4. Monopoly Power and Regulation
  5. Rate of Return Regulation (RRR)
  6. Drawbacks of RRR
  7. Franchise Auctioning
  8. Incentive Regulation

18 Theory of Multi-Level Government

  1. Introduction
  2. Functions of Government
  3. Federalism: A Multi-Level Government System
  4. Role of Sub-Central Units
  5. Financial Relations
  6. Principal-Agent Analytical Framework
  7. Multi-Level Government: The Case of India

19 Fiscal Federalism in India

  1. Federalism
  2. Fiscal Federalism in India
  3. Theory of Fiscal Federalism
  4. Inter Governmental Transfers in India

20 Design of Fiscal Transfers

  1. Economic Rationale for Intergovernment Fiscal Transfers
  2. Principles of Tax Assignment
  3. Criteria for Designing a Transfer System
  4. Mechanism for Intergovernmental Transfer in India
  5. Fiscal Architecture in India
  6. Fiscal Transfers in India: Institutional Framework
  7. Trends in Fiscal Transfer Mechanism
  8. State-local Fiscal Relations

21 Fiscal and Monetary Policies- Growth and Stabilisation

  1. Fiscal Policy
  2. Monetary Policy
  3. Stabilisation
  4. Economic Growth

22 Public Policy for Distributive Justice

  1. Optimal Taxation Rule
  2. Quantitative Measures of Assessing the Distributive Role
  3. Public Policy and Poverty

23 International Policy Coordination

  1. Historical Review
  2. Spillover Effects
  3. Policy Coordination Gains
  4. Problems of International Policy Coordination
  5. Anti-Trust and Climate Change