Course

Read about the Master Programme and find the Study Regulations at ruc.dk

You register for activities through stads selvbetjening during the announced registration period, which you can see on the Study administration homepage.

When registering for courses, please be aware of the potential conflicts and overlaps between course and exam time and dates. The planning of course activities at Roskilde University is based on the recommended study programmes, which should not overlap. However, if you choose optional courses and/or study plans that goes beyond the recommended study programmes, an overlap of lectures or exam dates may occur depending on which courses you choose.

The course uses perspectives from economics to dive into the transnational aspects of public economics. It pays particular attention to the provision of international public goods (e.g. climate, labour and environmental standards, cross-border financial and tax regulations, etc.) at the international level.

What are the public sector implications of the increase in cross-border flows of capital, labour, goods, and services, and the increasing prevalence of multinational firms? In particular, what are the implications for public budgets, fiscal policies, state aid, regulation, and provision of public goods? The course takes an economic perspective on these and similar questions. In doing so, it prepares students for operating in environments where policy decisions are both shaping and being shaped by the international economy and how public goods are produced and regulated.

The teaching alternates between lectures, exercises, and other case work. Typically, lecturers will introduce the topic and a case after which the students will work in groups towards solving a practical or theoretical problem. A variety of teaching formats are applied, including simulation exercises.

During the course, students will prepare, in groups, an independent synopsis drawing on the common curriculum and their own additional readings with an outset in a number of topics that are offered by instructors at mid-term.

Public economics is traditionally understood as the study of government policy through the lens of economic efficiency and equity. In our conceptualization, international public economics is the study of international regulation and governance through those same lenses of efficiency and equity. We take point of departure in Dani Rodrik’s work on the Economics of Globalization, linking it to the notion of Liberal Economic Order. Many scholars and analysts see the post-WW2 economic order as increasingly challenged, both by the rise of various forms of anti-establishment politics (Trump, Brexit etc), by the rise of China and by various other authoritarian regimes. In Rodrik’s analysis, the emergence of these challenges were to large extent predictable outcomes of the move from the moderate globalization of the Bretton Woods regime to the hyperglobalization of the 1990s and 2000s.

Against this backdrop, this course: • Provides on overview of the history and configuration of the liberal economic order • Articulates the relation between liberal economic order and open economy macroeconomics in general, and the Washington consensus in particular • Outlines the process of hyperglobalization, with a particular focus on finance • Examines current pressures on key nodes of the liberal economic order • Discusses reforms which could enhance the political and economic sustainability of a peaceful, globally integrated world economy • Relates these developments to the key cross-border public goods that are at stake; such as financial stability, mitigation of climate change; etc.

The following three books are used across many lectures as background readings combined with journal articles and specialized reports from international organisations and similar (we refer to the course’s Moodle pages for references to the latter): 

CORE (2017) The Economy (OUP). The book is available online. Please note that there might also be additional readings for individual sessions. 

Rodrik, D (2011). The globalization paradox. Oxford University Press

The course is mandatory and counts towards 10 ECTS points, corresponding to a total of 270 work hours. It is expected that the work effort is divided as follows – with 50% in (1) and 25% towards (2) and (3) respectively: (1) reading and class preparation including revision;

(2) participation in classes and with exercises working in small groups; and

(3) elaboration of synopsis individually or in small groups.

Preparing and class preparation involves reading the announced curricula, but here it is also important that students after each class revise the curricula and reflect upon the content of the exercise or in-class activity in relation to the curricula.

During the class sessions students are expected to work creatively and in collaboration in small groups to come up with inventive, original and individually designed and composed solutions to the exercises.

Around mid-term students are asked to actively engage in elaboration and design of their own synopsis, working in small groups or individually. The students are expected to consult and tie with their course convenors and co-students towards developing and designing their curricula.

The exam is a synopsis exam comprising a written product of maximum 9,600 characters. The synopsis shall take outset in one or several of the topics covered in the course, but it is also expected that students’ develop their synopsis beyond the standard curricula within each topic.

A successful exam result rests on a combined student effort within each of the three main spheres of work as described and detailed out above on the course in International Public Economics.

See inspiration to activity forms here and ETCS declaration here.

Campus

This study activity is not part of ISE's evaluation rotation this semester, so it is not evaluated by the ISE Admin (by questionnaire).

• To apply theoretical key concepts in the field of public finances (public goods, efficiency, equity, monetary policy, taxation, tax spill-over, climate policy, etc.).

• To acquire research-based knowledge of how activities transcending public administration and policy boundaries (especially regionalisation and globalisation) affect these key concepts.

• To identify, analyse, and discuss interactions between national and transnational market-based and public regulatory mechanisms and interventions that may impact on central outcomes of and for policies and with a focus on the public sphere of interest.

• To analyse and assess the impact of different regulatory mechanisms and policy interventions on the economy at different levels and for different spheres of interests/stakeholders.

Explain and elaborate on different concepts as they apply in the individual or combined spheres of the international and public economy.

Apply theory and ideas from international public economics towards deepening our understanding of specific and exemplary cases from the field.

Compare the lessons, explanations and implication of applying different theoretical lenses towards analysing specific problems of an international public economic nature.

Critically assess and evaluate the assumptions underlying different theories and empirical applications in the field of international public economics

Present public policy briefings and recommendations related with international public economic problems and issues.