Dr Ethan Ilzetzki and Professor Daniel Sturm

This course is compulsory on the Master of Public Administration. This course is available on the MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Columbia), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Hertie), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and NUS), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Sciences Po), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Tokyo) and MSc in Political Science and Political Economy. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course is an introductory graduate course providing an economics background suitable for high-level public policy-making. The emphasis is on acquiring sound models and methods suitable for appraising policy-making issues in a wide variety of contexts. The first term (MT) covers microeconomics and the second term (LT) covers macroeconomics.

MT (Microeconomics): competitive markets and economic efficiency; consumer optimisation and the demand for goods; firm optimisation and the supply of goods; market power; externalities in consumption and production; optimal provision of public goods; asymmetric information and market failure

LT (Macroeconomics): understanding macroeconomic data; long-run economic growth; business cycles; aggregate demand; money, inflation and monetary policy; stabilization policy;  fiscal policy and government debt; the labour market and unemployment; exchange rates and international economic policy; the financial system and the macroeconomy.

20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the MT. 20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the LT. 2 hours of lectures in the ST.

Students will complete weekly problem sets. Some of these will be marked to provide indicative assessment.

A full reading list will be distributed at the beginning of the course.

Exam (70%, duration: 3 hours, reading time: 15 minutes) in the summer exam period.
Policy memo (10%) in the MT.
Policy memo (10%) in the LT.
Continuous assessment (10%) in the MT and LT.