Apply for "Public Economics" Course

We invite students to participate in a six-week intensive course (24 hours) in Public Economics, concluding with a certificate from the CERGE-EI Foundation. The course will be conducted in English in a hybrid format – combining online lectures with on-campus workshops at the EkSoc campus. Classes will begin on October 27 and run until December 5, 2025. Participants can earn 3 ECTS credits, which may be recognized as an elective course.

Opublikowano: 08 October 2025

[Translate to English:] klocki jak z scrabble z napisem government

Course Outline

This course covers the key concepts in public economics, a field of economics that studies the role of government in the economy. The course is designed to introduce seminal theoretical concepts and discuss the most recent empirical developments in public economics with the aim to understand:

why and how governments intervene in an economy,
how individuals and firms react to these interventions,
what are the implications of those interventions for the overall welfare and economic development.

Course Structure

Each week will include a lecture and an exercise session on the same topic. Lectures will introduce theoretical concepts, while exercise sessions will cover theoretical and empirical exercises. The course topics include:

The role of government in an economy. Public goods and their provision
Market failures and externalities. Types of externalities. Private- and public-sector remedies to externalities. Environmental and health externalities
Income inequality. Social insurance and redistribution
Taxation. Types of taxes. Tax evasion and rent-seeking
Political economy. Social choice and voting
Topics in empirical public economics

Main Instructor: Olga Popova, Ph.D.

Local Instructor: Ewa Stawasz-Grabowska, Ph.D.

Course details

ECTS points: 3 ECTS points (can be exchanged for crediting an elective lecture)
Classes: October 27 – December 5, 2025
Online lectures: Wednesday 8.00 - 9.30am CET, Friday 9.45 - 10.30am CET
Workshops with a local instructor: Friday 10.30 - 11.15 CET at the EkSoc Campus
Language of instruction: English
Grading: Bi-weekly quizzes (50%), Final exam (50%)
Final exam week: December 8 – 12, 2025
Make-up exam week: December 15 – 19, 2025