Public Economics - JSM731

• Title: Public Economics
• Czech title: Veřejná ekonomie
• Form of teaching: lecture+seminar
• Guaranteed by: Department of Public and Social Policy (23-KVSP)
• Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
• Actual: from 2026
• Duration in semesters: 1
• Semester: winter
• E-Credits: 8
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:1/1, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: unlimited / unlimited (25)
• Maximum number of enrolled students: 25
• Min. number of students: 1
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Repeated enrollment: 2 / 2 / 1 / 2
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment; priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
• Guarantor: doc. Ing. et Ing. Eliška Vejchodská, Ph.D.
• Teacher(s): doc. Ing. et Ing. Eliška Vejchodská, Ph.D.
• Class: Courses for incoming students
• Incompatibility : JEB025
• Is incompatible with: JEB025

Annotation

The course introduces students to the economics of the public sector. It provides the theoretical underpinnings for the interventions of the public sector into the economy including public expenditure analysis and taxation issues. It discusses the questions of when and how to intervene into the market and which effects do the interventions have. It familiarises students with public intervention practice within selected public policy areas and the empirical research techniques taking place within public economics area.

Last update: Vejchodská Eliška, doc. Ing. et Ing., Ph.D. (11.09.2026)

Aim of the course

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

- explain the purposes of the public sector interventions lying in efficiency and equity
- apply selected theoretical tools of economics to assessment of public sector interventions
- apply selected theoretical tools of economics to assessment of real public policy problems
- explain public finance perspective of public services provision

Last update: Vejchodská Eliška, doc. Ing. et Ing., Ph.D. (11.09.2026)

Literature

Recommended literature

Only selected chapters covered by the lectures are compulsory literature sources:

Gruber, Jonathan. Public Finance and Public Policy. Worth Publishers, 3rd edition, 2011.

Banerjee, Abhijit V. and Duflo, Esther. Good Economics for Hard Times, 2019, Penguin Books.

Economics, Society and Public Policy: https://www.core-econ.org/espp/book/text/0-3-contents.html

Crook, Tony, John Henneberry, and Christine Whitehead. Planning gain: Providing infrastructure and affordable housing. John Wiley & Sons, 2015.

Hanley, Nick, Jason Shogren, and Ben White. Introduction to environmental economics. Oxford University Press, 2019.

Okun, Arthur M. Equality and efficiency: The big tradeoff. Brookings Institution Press, 2015.

Stiglitz, Joseph E. Public Sector Economics. Third Edition. W.W Norton & Company, New York. 2000.

Last update: Vejchodská Eliška, doc. Ing. et Ing., Ph.D. (11.09.2026)

Syllabus

Course topics

- Introduction
- Role of the public sector; empirical tools of public economics
- Thinking as an economist; market functioning
- Externalities and their solutions
- Monopolies
- Public goods and asymmetric information
- Common-pool resources
- Cost-benefit analysis
- Tax incidence and tax policy
- Inequalities and trade-offs
- Deficit and debt

Last update: Vejchodská Eliška, doc. Ing. et Ing., Ph.D. (11.09.2026)