For students:

Public Economics 1: Taxation Policy (5 cr)

–

Code:
ECOM-440
Field:
Public Economics
Targets:
Master’s students Research Master's students PhD students
Organiser:
University of Helsinki - Economics
Instructor:
Jukka Pirttilä
Period:
Period 3
Format:
Lecture
Method:
Contact teaching
Venue:
Economicum building
Enrollment:
Sisu How to enroll?

In case of conflicting information consider the Sisu/Courses/Moodle pages the primary source of information.

Overview

This course covers key topics in modern public economics research, utilizing mainly theoretical but also empirical material. The course focuses on taxation. It is recommended that students also take the course Public Economics 2 to get a full picture of the field. 

Teaching

  • Schedule: can be found in Course Page and Sisu
  • Study materials: can be found in Moodle
    • For some courses, it is enough to register in Sisu and you can access directly the Moodle area, please note, however, that it may take up to two hours after registration to enter the Moodle area.
    • Log in with your UH username to be able to use all the features of the course workspace
    • More tips for enrolling in Moodle can be found here

Please register for the course in the UH Sisu with your UH username. Further instructions can be found here.

University-specific instructions

Aalto University Students

  • Code: no equivalent code

  • Target groups: MSc / rMSc / PhD

  • Credit points: 5

  • Credit transfer: apply for inclusion in Sisu

Further information on credit transfer can be found here.

Hanken Students

  • Code: 26040

  • Target groups: MSc / rMSc / PhD

  • Credit points: 5 cr

  • Credit transfer: apply for substitution in Sisu

Further instructions on credit transfer can be found here.

University of Helsinki Students
  • Code: ECOM-440
  • Target groups: MSc / rMSc / PhD students: please contact your supervisor/program director to be sure that the course credit can be counted towards your degree
  • Credit points: 5
  • AGERE students: Before taking and completing this course make sure that the credits can be counted towards your degree by checking which courses are/can be included in your curriculum. You can also contact your planning officer Simo Riikonen (firstname.lastname@helsinki.fi).
FDPE Students Students

  • Please contact your supervisor/program director to be sure that the course credit can be counted towards your degree

  • Credit transfer: please apply for credit transfer according to your home university’s procedures

Further instructions can be found here.

Learning outcomes

After the course, student should be well versed in the basis of government intervention and the impacts and the design of tax policies, and be able to use the material covered in own analytical work and research afterwards. Specifically, the course covers the following area:

  • welfare theoretic underpinnings of government intervention
  • equity and efficiency, measurement of inequality
  • tax incidence and the deadweight burden of taxes
  • the impact of taxes on household behaviour: labour supply and taxable income elasticities
  • optimal income tax and transfer policies
  • corporate income taxation
  • tax evasion and avoidance
  • tax competition