AØKK08089U Political Economics

Volume 2019/2020
Education

MSc programme in Economics – elective course

 

The PhD Programme in Economics at the Department of Economics  - elective course with resarch module (PhD students must contact the study administration and the lecturer in order to write the research assignment)

Content

The course provides a broad overview of modern political economics. It deals with the interaction of politics and economics, using formal models to understand the implications for economic policy of various political settings and institutions. The course relates the theoretical predictions to real world examples and systematic empirical findings.

The course covers the following topics:

  • Electoral competition and voter behavior
  • Partisan politics and political agency
  • Redistributive aspects of politics
  • Legislative bargaining
  • Impact of different political institutions on economic policy
  • Sources of differences in political preferences
  • Politics and the media
Learning Outcome

After completing the course the student is expected to be able to:

 

Knowledge:

  • Explain the basic and more advanced theoretical models of different aspects of political-economic process as well as methods and results of empirical assessment of these models.
  • Account for the tools of modeling as well as empirical methods and results within the topics listed under the course content above.

     

Skills:

  • Apply methods and results from the list of topics above, to analyze variations and extensions of these and closely related topics within political economics.
  • Discuss the underlying assumptions and methods within these topics and their impact on the analytical results

     

Competences:

  • Discuss the topics of the course within both a national and international practical and empirical context at the level corresponding to that presented in class.
  • Plan and execute independent theoretical and empirical analyses that address issues within the topics listed above, as well as other related topics in political economics.
Literature

The course mainly draws on journal articles in economics and political science, but supplemented with the textbook

  • “Political Economics” by Persson and Tabellini, 2002, ISBN no. 9780262661317.

 

For the econometric methods introduced in the course we will use chapters from the textbook

  • “Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist’s Companion” by Joshua D. Angrist and Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009, ISBN no. 978-0691120355.
The student should have a sound knowledge of basic micro economic concepts such as preferences, utility maximization, and indirect utility functions from the course Microeconomics I and with game theoretical concepts (e.g. Nash equilibrium, subgame perfect equilibrium) from the course Microeconomics II. The student should also be familiar with econometric techniques (e.g. OLS regression, IV estimation) is also required from the course Econometrics I. The coursenames refer to courses in the Bachelorstudy of Economics, University of Copenhagen.
Lectures.
Students are expected to participate actively during classes.
Schedule:
2 hours lectures 1 to 2 times a week from week 36 to 50 (except week 42).

Schema:
The overall schema for the Master can be seen at KUnet:
MSc in Economics => "Courses and teaching" => "Planning and overview" => "Your timetable"

Timetable and venue:
To see the time and location of lectures please press the link under "Se skema" (See schedule) at the right side of this page. E means Autumn.

You can find the similar information partly in English at
https:/​/​skema.ku.dk/​ku1920/​uk/​module.htm
-Select Department: “2200-Økonomisk Institut” (and wait for respond)
-Select Module:: “2200-E19; [Name of course]”
-Select Report Type: “List – Weekdays”
-Select Period: “Efterår/Autumn – Weeks 31-5”
Press: “ View Timetable”
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Exam
  • 3
  • Lectures
  • 42
  • Preparation
  • 161
  • Total
  • 206
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written examination, 3 hours under invigilation
The exam assignment is given in English and must be answered in English.
____
Exam registration requirements

There are no requirements during the course that the student has to fulfill to be able to sit the exam.

____

Aid
Without aids
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
for the written exam. The exam may be chosen for external censorship by random check.
____
Exam period

The exam takes place in the exam venues of the university:

13 January 2020

 

Exam information:

The exact time and room will be available in  the Digital Exam  from the middle of the semester.

 

In special cases, the exam date can be changed to another day and time within the exam period.

 

For enrolled students more information about examination, rules etc. is available at the intranet for Master students (UK) and Master students (DK).

____

Re-exam

The reexam:

The written reexam take place in the exam venues of the university:

20 February 2020

 

NOTE: If only a few students have registered for the written re-exam, the reexam might change to an oral exam including the date, time and place for the exam, which will be informed by the Examination Office.

 

Reexam information:

Information about the reexam will be available in the Digital Exam  early February.

 

More information is available at  Master students (UK) and Master students (DK).  

 

Criteria for exam assesment

Students are assessed on the extent to which they master the learning outcome for the course.

 

To receive the top grade, the student must with no or only a few minor weaknesses be able to demonstrate an excellent performance displaying a high level of command of all aspects of the relevant material and can make use of the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes.

 

For this course the student must also demonstrate

Knowledge:

  • Of the methods and results within the topics covered in the course

 

Skills:

  • The ability to apply these methods to analyze variations and extensions of these and closely related topics within political economics
  • The ability to critically discuss assumptions and methods used within these topics

 

Competencies:

  • The ability to discuss the topics of the course within both a national and international practical and empirical context at the level corresponding to that presented in class.