BPV_AIPP Introduction to Public Policies

Faculty of Economics and Administration
Autumn 2017
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Ing. Marek Pavlík, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. JUDr. Ivan Malý, CSc.
Department of Public Economics – Faculty of Economics and Administration
Contact Person: Mgr. Jana Nesvadbová
Supplier department: Department of Public Economics – Faculty of Economics and Administration
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
The course provides essential knowledge about Public Policy process and explains why and how it is useful for economists. The aim of the course is to give the students a chance to understand principles of public policy as well as understand link between policy and economics issues. Students will be also able to understand and partly analyze selected current policy issues.
Learning outcomes
Student will be able to
- understand basic public policy approaches and its meaning for economics
- find arguments for as well as against given policy issue
- analyse (at basic level) selected policy issues
- write an essay which means to write and work with scientific papers and be able to formulate his/her own opinion
- identify economics consequences of selected policy problems and issues.
- see the complexity of public policy and be able to avoid making simplified statements about policy issues.
Syllabus
  • Part 1 Introduction to public policy
  • - Public policy - basic principles, values, and concepts for public policies study
  • - Policy formulation and design and the role of policy actors
  • - Policy aims and instruments
  • - Policy implementation and evaluation
  • Part 2 – Selected topics - example. At the beginning of the course the list of topics will be announced. This approach enables to follow actual cases and issues as well as an invitation of incoming academics from foreign universities or experts from practical field.
  • - Social policy and social issues – case of the Czech republic
  • - Migration as political and economic issues
  • - EU – how policy formulation affects allocation of resources
  • - Obama-care – expectation and failures
  • - Ageing population – economic limits for policy formulation
  • - Equal access to the labour market – a comparison of selected countries
  • - How and why is bureaucracy important for the public policy?
  • Part 3 – consultations of essays.
  • At least one tutorial will be dedicated to an individual discussion of essays before the deadline for submission.
Literature
    required literature
  • HOWLETT, Michael, M. RAMESH and Anthony PERL. Studying public policy : policy cycles and policy subsystems. Third edition. Ontario: Oxford university press, 2009, vii, 298. ISBN 9780195428025. info
    recommended literature
  • PETERS, B. Guy. Advanced introduction to public policy. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2015, x, 203. ISBN 9781781955765. info
  • CAIRNEY, Paul. Understanding public policy : theories and issues. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, xvii, 327. ISBN 9780230229709. info
  • DYE, Thomas R. Understanding public policy. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005, xvii, 356. ISBN 0131174525. info
Teaching methods
The course is organized as lectures, however the class discussion will be always part of the lecture. During a self-study students will read papers and write an essay.
Assessment methods
To successfully finish the course the student need to write an essay and pass an oral exam.

The seminar work “essay” consists two parts where students make a short case study for selected policy issue and write an essay related to the previous issue. The aim of this work is to apply theoretical knowledge and to formulate his/her own opinion and present a wide range of scholarly correct arguments to support this opinion. The student can gain 0-60 points. Any plagiarism is evaluated as 0 points without possibilities to rewrite it.

The oral exam is organized as debate exercise where students presents the argumentations skills. The student will present arguments for as well as against implementation of the randomly selected policy issue. The special focus will be put on discussion of economic consequences of given policy issue. The list of policy issues will be announced before the end of the semester while most of topics will follow issues presented on lectures. The student can gain 0-40 points.

The final grade is a sum of points gained from the essay and the oral exam. Both parts has to be done with gain more than 1 points. Grades are set as follows E 60+, D 68+, C 76+, B 84+, A92+.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2018, Autumn 2019, Autumn 2021, Autumn 2022, Autumn 2023, Autumn 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2017, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/econ/autumn2017/BPV_AIPP