Public Finance
In this couse I will teach Public Finance at the introductory level. It consists of two parts. The first part covers topics on public expenditures and public debt and the second covers taxation. Because public finance has a very broad range of issues related to the economy, it is impossible to cover everying in this short course. In particular, I will have no sufficient time to talk about issues related to social protection, such as public pension and health insurance. I hope these topic will be lectured in other classes. In this course, therefore, I will try to cover the following issues.
In the first part,
- What activities do the governments do?
- How is the size of government in the economy?
- Is the burdent of public debt shited to the future generations?
- Should the government balance its buget over time?
- Is the mulitplier effect of public spending far larger than 1?
and in the second part,
- What are the principles of taxation?
- Which should be taxed, income or expenditure?
- When does a tax distort economic behavior and how?
- How does the general consumption tax work in our economy?
Unofortunately, I cannot talk about local and international aspects of pubic finance, either.
