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Dr Ethan Ilzetzki SAL.1.11 and Prof Valentino Larcinese CON.5.02

This course is available on the MRes/PhD in Economics, MRes/PhD in Economics and Management and MRes/PhD in Political Science. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

MRes Economics first year core courses for Economics students, EC400 and adviser’s approval for Government students. EC400, EC411 (or equivalent) and course convener’s approval for all other students.

This course provides students with the economic methodology and tools for the analysis of political decision making and its effect on public policy. The course will focus on analytical models, their testable implications, and on empirical work across a range of topics at the frontier of the literature. Topics are likely to include the political economy of macroeconomics, with several applications relating to fiscal policy and broad exposure to dynamic modelling tools. In addition, several lectures will be devoted to the political economy of mass media.

Additional topics in this field are also explored in the half unit Political Economy for Research Students I in the AT. The two half units are designed to complement each other.

30 hours of lectures in the WT.

The course is delivered through lectures totalling a minimum of 30 hours across Winter Term. Attendance is compulsory.

Students will discuss papers in lectures.

Alesina, Alberto, and Andrea Passalacqua, 2016. “The Political Economy of Government Debt.” Chap. 33 in Handbook of Macroeconomics, vol. 2, edited by John B. Taylor and Harald Uhlig. Amsterdam: Elsevier; Alesina, Alberto and Guido Tabellini, 1990. "A Positive Theory of Fiscal Deficits and Government Debt," Review of Economic Studies, 57(3); Battaglini, Marco and Stephen Coate, 2008. "A Dynamic Theory of Public Spending, Taxation, and Debt," American Economic Review 98(1); Timothy Besley and Torsten Persson, 2009. "The Origins of State Capacity: Property Rights, Taxation, and Politics," American Economic Review, vol. 99(4), pages 1218-44, September; Alesina, Alberto, and Paola Giuliano. 2015. "Culture and Institutions." Journal of Economic Literature, 53(4): 898-944; DellaVigna Stefano and Matthew Gentzkow (2010). Persuasion: empirical evidence, Annual Review of Economics, 2: 643-669; Prat, Andrea and David Stromberg (2013): The political economy of mass media, in Advances in economics and econometrics, Ed, D. Acemoglu, Manuel Arellano, Eddie Dekel, Cambridge University Press, pp. 135-187; Groseclose, Timonthy and J. Milyo (2005). A Measure of Media Bias. Quarterly Journal of Economics. 120(4): 1191-1237; Larcinese, Valentino, Riccardo Puglisi and James M. Snyder, "Partisan Bias in Economic News: Evidence on the Agenda-Setting Behavior of U.S. Newspapers". Journal of Public Economics

Coursework (100%) in the ST.