Syllabus

Cities in the developing world are faced with a dilemma: they have some of the fastest growing populations in the world that require more urban services than ever but they also have limited fiscal and institutional capacity to provide them.

This course explores the question of how to pay for urban public services in developing countries. It surveys both public finance theory and applied policy debates. Students of this course should come away with facility in public finance analysis, familiarity with a variety of financing schemes and their strengths and weaknesses, and a general theoretical framework with which to approach real urban financing problems in developing countries.

A premise of the course is that public finance institutions reflect social values and injustices. This class will make explicit the normative values underlying the issues and encourage students to question and develop their own attitudes and understanding in this area.

This course is designed to benefit those students who would like a more policy-oriented treatment of public finance theory. While students should have taken at least one micro-economic theory course before taking this course, students will not be expected to have previous familiarity with public finance. As needed, the instructor will schedule recitations for students who would benefit from additional help in mastering the material.


Course Format

Towards the beginning of the course, more of the class sessions will consist of lectures of basic pubic finance theory and working through example problems. As the class gains greater facility with this vocabulary, the class sessions will increasingly consist of discussions of readings and case studies that inform of the institutional, political, and implementation challenges of raising finance for public services in developing countries.


Course Text

The course readings have been gathered into a reader which will be available for students in the beginning of the semester. Two copies have also been placed on class reserve at Rotch library.


Assignments and Grading

Students will submit the following and be graded according to the following weights:

Problem Sets

There will be four problem sets due in the course to assist in the acquisition of basic public finance theory. These assignments will be submitted electronically via the class website. No late assignments will be accepted.

Final Take-home Exam

Students will have a 24 hour period in which to complete a take-home, open-book, open-note exam. Students will be asked to display their understanding of the concepts discussed in the reading and class meetings.

Reading Presentation

In an effort to promote lively classroom discussion and encourage students to do the reading, each student will do a short 10-minute presentation of an assigned reading. This presentation should not review the entire reading but orient the students to the main points. The students should end their presentation with a list of 3-5 discussion questions for the class. Please email the questions to the students and professor at least one day before class.