Public Finance

Course name：Public Finance

Course No. FAH1131110 Credits: 3

Course description

The objective of this course is to make the students master the basic theory and the analysis methods about public finance and taxation, and become familiar with the history and present situation of Chinese fiscal reform. By learning this course, students can master the concepts and trends of public finance, and have a clear understanding about the fiscal revenue, fiscal expenditure, and macro financial regulation, and understanding the function and the main position about public finance and taxation in the whole national economy, especially in the market economy in China and around the world. When finishing the course, the students can analyse most aspects of social economy such as the current economy and economic policy through integrating theory with practice.

Learning outcomes

1. Mastering the basic knowledge, basic theory of public finance;2.

2. Having the basic ability to deal with public financial and tax services vocational work;3.

3. Being familiar with the policy, orientation and regulation of national financial and taxation;4.

4. Understanding of the frontier and developments of public finance;5.

5. Mastering the basic method about the literature and data search and having the fundamental ability of scientific research and practical work.

Relationship to other courses

The prerequisite for this course is Political Economics, Microeconomics and Macroeconomics.

Textbook and reading lists

Chengong. Public Finance. Publishing House of RenminUniversity of China, 2014.

Harvey S. Rosen. Ted Gayer, Public Finance (Eighth Edition), Publishing House of Machinery industry, 2012

Jonathan Gruber. Public Finance and Public policy (Third Edition), Worth Publishers. 2011.

Course assessment

Item	Title	Due Date	Value
1	Questions/Discussion/Presentation in class	Randomly selected weeks	20%
2	Quiz in class	Week 9	20%
3	Final exam	Exam period	60%

Course schedule

Week	Topics	Text
1	Introduction and Review: Why Study Public Finance +The Four Questions of Public Finance + Why Study Public Finance? Facts on Government in China +Why Study Public Finance Now?	Chapters 1
2	Theoretical and Empirical Tools of Public Finance	Chapters 2
3	Public Goods: Problems and Solutions +Optimal Provision of Public Goods +Private Provision of Public Goods +Public Provision of Public Goods	Chapters 3
4	Implementing Public Goods: Political Economy and Public Choice	Chapters 4
5-6	Central and Local Government Expenditures +The Theory of Government Expenditures +Fiscal Federalism in China + Optimal Fiscal Federalism + Scale and Structure Central and Local Government Expenditures	Chapters 5-6
7	The State Budget +The Theory of The State Budget + The Program of The State Budget	Chapters 7
8-10	Taxation in China + Types of Taxation + Structure of the Taxation in China + Measuring the Fairness and Efficiency of Tax Systems	Chapter 8-9
11-12	Introduction of China Tax and Around the World	Chapter 10
13	The Equity Implications of Taxation--Tax Incidence + The Three Rules of Tax Incidence + Tax Incidence Extensions + General Equilibrium Tax Incidence +The Incidence of Taxation in China	Chapter 11
14-15	Tax Effect + Taxes on Labor Supply + Taxation of Savings + Taxation of Labors	Chapter 12
16	Fundamental Tax Reform + Why Fundamental Tax Reform? + The Politics and Economics of Tax Reform	Chapter 13
17	The Macroeconomic Regulation and Control + Fiscal Policy +Tax Policy	Chapter 14