Political Economy

Course description
Recent The course provides an overview of the field of empirical political economy. The course covers empirical modelling strategies, using both structural and nonstructural approaches, which have been recently used to address questions relating to political behaviour. The goal of the course is for students to acquire a critical knowledge of the literature and be able to identify an interesting, doable and theoretically grounded research question in this area.

Topics

• The determinants of individual political behaviour such as voting intention, turnout and partisanship.
• The impact of media and political institutions on political behaviour.
• How incentives within the political system shape the performance of politicians and how politicians may manipulate spending and debt to influence future electoral outcomes.

Teaching methods
The course will encompass lectures, held by the instructor, and classes led by a student or a group of students, who will be in charge of presenting a paper chosen from the reading list or approved by the instructor, and followed by a discussion with the participation of all students.

Assessment methods
Assessment will be based on (i) presentation and class participation; (ii) written discussion (extended referee report) of a paper from the reading list or approved by the instructor.