What is a public good? Why do people pollute? What is collective action, and what forms does it take? This module provides students with theoretical and empirical insights to understand and analyze problems of collective action – i.e. situations in which members of communities need to coordinate shared interests. The module introduces the analytical concepts of collective action and presents applied local and global cases.
This course also covers some of the most important questions about the aims and tools of economic policy. It will equip students to evaluate the economic arguments made about public policy choices. The module covers at traditional techniques for evaluating economic policies. Particular attention is paid to recent financial crises and ways countries have dealt with them.
The module will be taught in two weekly sessions: a weekly pre-recorded lecture and a weekly interactive seminar. The pre-recorded lecture will consist of one or more items of prepared content that students can access electronically and must study before the interactive seminar.
This module is a key part of the BA in Political Economics. It is open to all undergraduate students in the Department of Government and serves as a good complement to our module Institutions of Democracy (GV121). It also provides an excellent foundation to the more advanced third year module in Political Economy (GV307).
- Module Supervisor: Miranda Simon