Public Finance

By Dr. Shreeda Chungkham | Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Dhanamanjuri University, Imphal

Learners enrolled: 774

Public finance as a discipline is concerned with raising and spending money to deliver services and benefits, redistributing income, and smoothing the ups and downs of the business cycle. How effectively governments execute it depends crucially on their ability to collect, process, and act on a vast array of information: how much companies and workers earn, how many people are unemployed, who qualifies for government benefits. As a subject it encompasses a host of topics including market failures, externalities, structure and scope of government; taxation, subsidies and revenues; fiscal policies and behaviour of economic agents; publicly provided goods; national government expenditures and related policies; national budget, deficit and debt; state and local government; intergovernmental relations etc. It considers the role governments play in keeping markets stable and analyzes the extent that government interference helps or hinders free-market activities.

The main objectives of this course are to enable learners to describe the concept of normative analysis, to analyze fiscal functions, theories on public expenditures; to describe the concept of Pareto efficiency, equity and social welfare; to discuss market failure, public goods and problem of free riding; to analyze externalities, market inefficiency associated with them and their remedies; to discuss the principles of taxation, taxable capacity and nature of tax burden, to describe India’s tax structure and tax reforms it has undertaken; to discuss the techniques and principles of budgeting, deficits and their management, the Centre-State financial relations, finance commission and analyze state and local finances.

After successful completion of the course, learners are expected to explained the scope of public finance, the rationale behind public expenditure, its functions and different theories of public expenditure, to discuss the concepts of market failures, public goods, the problem of free riding, externalities and market efficiencies; analyze the different principle of taxation, its rationale, measurements of taxable capacity, to describe India’s tax structure, tax reforms, budgets, deficits and its management, explain financial relations between Centre and states, the finance commission, the fiscal responsibility and budgetary management act and state finances.

This course is divided into two parts comprising of 50 modules. Each module will feature descriptive videos, text materials, glossary, FAQs, reading references, quizzes and assignments.

Summary

Course Status :	Ongoing
Course Type :	Core
Duration :	15 weeks
Category :	Management Studies
Credit Points :	5
Level :	Undergraduate
Start Date :	15 Jul 2024
End Date :	31 Oct 2024
Enrollment Ends :	31 Aug 2024
Exam Date :	14 Dec 2024 IST
Exam Shift :	Shift 1

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

WEEK 1	1	Part 1: Public Finance: An Introduction
		Part 2: Public Finance: An Introduction
	2	Pareto Efficiency
	3	Part 1: Welfare Theorem
		Part 2: Social Welfare Functions
	4	Why do we need a Public Sector?
WEEK 2	5	Fiscal Functions
	6	Theories of Public Expenditure: Wagner’s Law and Baumal’s Law
	7	Part 1: Peacock Wiseman and Ratchet Effect
		Part 2: Excessive Government
	8	Part 1: Market Failures
		Part 2: Redistribution and Merit Goods
WEEK 3	9	Public Goods
	10	Part 1: General Model for Public Goods
		Part 2: Lindahl Equilibrium Model
	11	Pure and Impure Public Goods
	12	Part 1: Free Riding and Public Good Provision
		Part 2: Publicly Provided Private Goods
WEEK 4	13	Externalities: Definition and Market Inefficiency
	14	Implication of Externalities
	15	Part 1: Tragedy of Commons
		Part 2: River Pollution and Traffic Jam
	16	Part 1: Pecuniary Externalities
		Part 2: Private Response to Externalities
WEEK 5	17	Public Responses to Externalities
	18	Public responses to externalities emissions fee
	19	Public Response to Externalities: The Cap and Trade Programs
	20	Difference between Emissions Fees Versus Cap and Trade
WEEK 6	21	Implications for Income Distribution
	22	Part 1: Principle of Taxation
		Part 2: Desirable Characteristics of a Tax System
	23	Nature of Tax Burden
WEEK 7	24	Meaning and Measures of Taxable Capacity
	25	Concepts of Tax Incidence
	26	Measuring Tax Incidence
WEEK 8	27	Partial Equilibrium View of Product Taxes
	28	Deadweight Loss: Quantifying Economics Inefficiency of Taxation
	29	Taxation of Savings and Labour Income
WEEK 9	30	Optimal Taxation
	31	Government in the Economy
	32	Fiscal Policy: Multiplier Effects
WEEK 10	33	Part 1: Overview of Money
		Part 2: The Concept of Money and Measures of Money Supply
	34	Part 1: How Bank Creates Money?
		Money Demand and Equilibrium Interest rate
	35	Monetary Policy
WEEK 11	36	India’s Tax Structure
	37	Direct and Indirect Tax: Composition and Challenges
	38	Direct Tax Reforms
WEEK 12	39	Value Added Tax or VAT
	40	Part 1: Goods and Service Tax
		Part 2: Agricultural Taxation in India
	41	Preparation of Budget: Revenue, Capital and Public Acc
		Preparation of Budget: Revenue, Capital and Public Acc
WEEK 13	42	Budget Deficit: Types, Causes and Effects
	43	Public Debt: Classification, Burden, Management and Repayment-
	44	Centre- State Financial Relations
WEEK 14	45	Finance Commission and Devolution of Sharable Taxes, & Grants
	46	State Finances and FRBM
	47	Local Bodies and Financial Responsibility
WEEK 15	48	Special Category States
	49	Public Policy and Development of North East India
	50	Part 1: Pandemic and Public Policies in India
		Part 2: Pandemic and Monetary Policy

Books and references

References

Bhatia, H.L (2008). Public Finance (26th Edition). Vikas, Publishing House.
Buchanan, J.M. (1970), The Public Finance, Richard D. Irwin.
Cullis, J. and Jones, P. (1998). Public Finance and Public Choice (1st Edition). Oxford University Press.
Herber, B.P. (1967). Modern Public Finance, Richard D. Irwin.
Leach, J. (2004). A Course in Public Economics. Cambridge University Press.
Lindahl, Erik. (1958/1919). “Just Taxation—A Positive Solution.” In Classics in the Theory of Public Finance . R. A. Musgrave and A. T. Peacock (eds.). New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Musgrave, Richard A. (1959). The Theory of Public Finance. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Musgrave, R.A. and Musgrave P.B. (1989). Public Finance in Theory and Practice (5th Edition). Mc-Graw Hill.
Rosen, H.S. and Gayer, T. (2009). Public Finance (9th Edition). Mc Graw Hill.
Stiglitz, J.E. (2009). Economics of Public Sector (3rd Edition). W. W. Norton and Co.
Taylor, P.E. (1957). The Economics of Public Finance. Macmillan.
Tullock, G. (1970). Private Wants, Public Means: An Economic Analysis of the Desirable Scope of Government, New York Basic Book.

Instructor bio

Dr. Shreeda Chungkham

Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Dhanamanjuri University, Imphal

Dr. Shreeda Chungkham is currently serving as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics, Dhanamanjuri University, Imphal, Manipur, India. He has teaching experience of about 5 years. He has received his Ph. D from Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India on the topic ‘Ethnic Diversity and Economic Performance in North East India since 1972’. His research interest lies in development economics, development challenges of North East India, bilateral relations between India and South Korea and behavioural economics. To his credit, he has research work published in various journals and regularly presented papers in national and international conferences and seminars.

He is an executive member of Manipur Research Forum, Assistant coordinator of IQAC and member of various academic and administrative committees of the college.