The Theory and Empirics of Taxation (Bachelor)
This module offers an introduction to the economic theory of taxation. In a first step, we discuss normative criteria for evaluating tax systems. The focus of the course then lies on positive tax analysis and discusses the behavioural responses of individuals, households and firms to taxation. In this sense, the course provides a deeper understanding of commodity, income and corporates taxation using microeconomic models. The theoretical insights are supplemented by reading recent empirical studies. Finally, the course analyses taxes as a measure to cope with market imperfections.
Social Policy (Bachelor)
In the module, the goals and instruments of social policy are presented and analyzed from an economic perspective. The course first addresses the question of when the state should intervene in private markets. Allocative and distributive justifications of state redistribution as well as state intervention in private insurance markets are discussed. In the second part, labor market policy measures (e.g. unemployment assistance, minimum wage) are discussed from a theoretical point of view and their effectiveness is evaluated on the basis of empirical examples. The last part of the course deals with current issues in one of the following areas: Education, Development Economics, Corruption.
Machine Learning in Empirical Public Economics (Master)
An interesting new development in the economics literature is that traditional empirical methods are combined with methods of machine learning (ML) to get a better understanding of empirical relationships or to learn about key parameters of theoretical economic models. Given the increasing amount of data available for economic research, ML techniques have become more and more important. This module combines recent trends in ML with policy applications in empirical public economics. The course serves as a "hands-on" module as students will independently work on two real-world data projects to implement the acquired methods.
Behavioural Taxation (Master, seminar)
While taxes have been extensively studied in the tradition of neoclassical models, insights of behavioral economics have started to complement this literature, which has - in some aspects - failed to explain real-world behaviour of individuals and firms. This master seminar deals with selected topics in behavioral taxation. Among others, we looked at the effects of tax complexity, tax salience and tax morale. The main objective of this seminar was to prepare students to write a master thesis in Public Economics.