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ECON-S455

Public Finance

academic year
2024-2025

Course teacher(s)

Gaëtan NICODEME (Coordinator)

ECTS credits

5

Language(s) of instruction

english

Course content

In 2023-2024, The course "Public Finance" will focus on the revenue side of Finance (i.e. taxation). It aims at providing students with an understanding of tax structures in the EU Member States, the description and functioning of the main taxes, their economic effects and the socio-economic issues they raise. A specific focus will be given on corporate taxation, tax competition and tax avoidance. The course will review the theoretical and empirical evidence of these policies and discuss the policy answers. It will discuss the domestic and international policy questions linked to corporate taxation, discussing aggressive tax planning activities and tax competition, to end with a discussion of current policy developments.

Objectives (and/or specific learning outcomes)

Develop knowledge in public finance, economics of taxation and tax policy in the European Union. Apply economics tools to analyse current policy questions. Derive sound policy recommendations.

Prerequisites and Corequisites

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

Microeconomics (undergraduate), Public Finance (undergraduate)

Teaching methods and learning activities

Lectures (in streaming via Teams in case the pandemic situation does not allow for presential courses), readings and self-learning, seminars (discussions)
 

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

General public finance textbooks. A reading list is provided to students with articles and chapters in books that vary with the topics covered

Course notes

  • Université virtuelle

Contribution to the teaching profile

Thorough and critical understanding of fundamental economic concepts and models as they apply to decisions made by individuals, firms and policy makers., Thorough and critical understanding of the working, benefits and limits of markets, as well as regulatory approaches and their limitations, Knowledge of key macro and sector-specific facts and economic trends and their drivers, Knowledge of the key mechanisms of economic governance, at the European and national levels, bring complex problems to a form that makes them amenable to analysis and to the identification of a solution, Keep up to date about political and economic developments to improve business practice; Identify and apply the analytical tools relevant for the problem at hand. (Be able to explain the limitations of these tools if any.) Understand the main policy challenges, Learn how to use economic theory and build models to analyze economic issues and formulate policy recommendations, Develop the ability to convince and influence policy makers

Knowledge of the basic economic concepts as used in contemporary economic research; Knowledge of the research frontier in the respective subfield of economics; Select and apply the theoretical tools of economics to specific problems in order to provide relevant solutions; Select and apply the empirical/statistical tools of economics to specific problems in order to provide relevant solutions

Other information

Additional information

Depending on the Coronavirus situation, the course may be given remotely via Teams

Contacts

Nicodeme.Gaetan@ulb.be

Campus

Solbosch

Evaluation

Method(s) of evaluation

  • Personal work
  • written examination

Personal work

written examination

  • Open question with developed answer
  • Closed question with multiple choices (MCQ)

Written exam
Personal Project

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

Written exam (50%)
Personal Project (50%)
 

Language(s) of evaluation

  • english

Programmes