Governance, Institutions and Public Policies

Year
1
Academic year
2018-2019
Code
03017665
Subject Area
Economics
Language of Instruction
Portuguese
Other Languages of Instruction
English
Mode of Delivery
Face-to-face
Duration
SEMESTRIAL
ECTS Credits
10.0
Type
Compulsory
Level
3rd Cycle Studies

Recommended Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Teaching Methods

Teaching is based on an inclusive methodology that starts with an interpretative explanation by the professor, who presents the proposed approaches and the debate they raise and how they can be used in the various fields of research in the Program. Initially, those problematics of greater relevance and pertinence to the Program are highlighted. Later, students are encouraged to elaborate on these matters, either by their own work on the bibliography proposed, or by developing conceptual work relevant for their research goals. Those are therefore active methodologies that point to the preparation of autonomous research capacities.

Learning Outcomes

The objective of this seminar is to give the students the capacity, through the study of relevant authors and the essential concepts, to participate in the institutionalist debate in economics. This is considered as a good contribute to qualify their capabilities as researchers. The concept of institutions and its relation with economic evolution are developed. Specifically, we deal with problematics as those introduced by Polanyi or the contemporary debate on the varieties of capitalism. A main goal is, additionally, that the students will be able to discuss the problems of uncertainty, transactions costs, and the contractualist approach. The discussion on social costs, public policies and social change allows for a wider debate on the relations between market and the State.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. Institutions and institutional economics: introduction to concepts and institutionalist economic thought.

2. Capitalism or capitalisms? The debate on “varieties of capitalism”.

3. What is realistic and utopian in political economy: the contribution of Karl Polanyi.

4. Institutions and economic evolution.

5. Uncertainty, transaction costs, contracts, organizations: institutionalist visions.

6. The institutionalist perspective on efficiency and public policies.

7. Social costs: Pigou, Coase and Kapp.

8. Public policies and institutional change.

9. Market failures, state failures and collective action.

 

Head Lecturer(s)

José Joaquim Dinis Reis

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Other: 25.0%
Synthesis work: 75.0%

Bibliography

Bromley, Daniel (1990), “The ideology of Efficiency: Searching for a Theory of Policy Analysis”, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 19: 86-107

Commons, John R (1931), "Institutional Economics", American Economic Review, vol. 21: 648-657.

Hall, Peter and Kathleen Thalen (2009), “Institutional Change in Varieties of Capitalism”, Socio-Economic Review, 7: 7-34.

Ostrom, Elinor (2010), “Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems”, American Economic Review, 100, 3: 641-72.

Kapp, K. William (1972), Social costs, neoclassical economics, environmental planning: A reply, Social Science Information, 11(1): 17-28.

Tanzi, Vito (2011), Government versus Markets – The Changing Role of the State, Cambridge MA: Cambridge University Press

Veblen, Thorstein (1898) "Why is Economics Not an Evolutionary Science”, The Quarterly Journal of Economics; Volume 12,

Wiliamson, Oliver (1987). The Economic Institutions of Capitalism. Nova Iorque: The Free Press.