Course Topics
Labour Supply; Human Capital and Education; Educational Quality and Competition; Social Insurance; Health Care and Health Insurance; Discrimination, Work and Family; Wage Structure and Inequality; Immigration

Teaching format
Frontal lectures

Educational objectives
Knowledge and understanding The student will acquire the knowledge of economic theory necessary to understand and analyse economic and business phenomena in the public sector in order to support decision-making processes. Knowledge of public policy and the tools necessary for the design of sustainable policies will be consolidated. The student will acquire knowledge related to the labour market, education and health will also be deepened, functional to the development of public policy analysis and evaluation skills. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding The student will acquire the ability to: - interpret market trends through the application of appropriate economic models and implement economic analysis tools, also using data; - apply economic models to describe the behaviour of economic agents and develop sustainable economic policies in various application domains of interest to companies and public bodies. Autonomy of judgement The student will acquire the ability to: - apply acquired knowledge to interpret economic and business phenomena in order to make managerial and operational decisions in the context of public administration; - select data and use appropriate information to describe a problem concerning the design, implementation and evaluation of public sector projects and policies, aiming at innovation and improvement of processes, products and results; - relate models and empirical evidence in the study of public policy phenomena; - reflect, also in a perspective of public ethics and sustainability with regard to future generations, on the responsibilities connected with the use of public resources. Communication skills The student will acquire the ability to communicate effectively in oral and written form the specialised content of the individual disciplines, using different registers according to recipients and communicative and didactic purposes, and to evaluate the formative effects of his/her communication. Learning skills The student will acquire the ability to: - use information technology autonomously to carry out bibliographic research and investigations and for one's own training and updating; - identify thematic links and establish relationships between different cases and contexts of analysis; - frame a new problem systematically and generate appropriate taxonomies; - develop general models from the phenomena studied.

Assessment
The final grade will be a weighted average of the (a) group presentations (10%) (b) class participation (10%), (c) written midterm exam (40%) (d) written final exam (40%). Non-attendees should contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester if they would like to participate in the group presentations. Non-attending students and students that reject their midterm grade will be given a longer final exam that will count for 60%, 80% or 100% of the final grade as applicable. The in-class slides of the instructor will form the basis for the material covered in the exams and will be made available to the students online. A reading list from the books by Gruber and Borjas will also be provided and material from these chapters can be covered in the exams as well.

Evaluation criteria
Criteria are standard: in exams correct procedure and solution counts. In addition, solutions to problems require the ability to summarize, evaluate, and establish relationships between topics, and skills in critical thinking.