ECN 403 - Public Choice

This course applies economic analysis to the problems of political and constitutional order. It uses the tools of price theory, including the theories of supply and demand, production, exchange and consumption to describe politics as a market in which policies and promises are bought and sold by voters, politicians and bureaucrats. The core of the course is the exploration of this political market and why it does not work as well as economic markets (in the words of the discipline’s founder James Buchanan “there is no political parallel to the invisible hand”). The course also analyses the optimal constitutional rules for the political game, the pre-existing structure withing which political process is taking place: what kind of majority should rule, what kind of limitations of domain the government should have, and so on.

3 Semester Credit(s)

Crosslisted with: POL 403
Laboratory/Experience Hours: N/A
Prerequisite(s): ECN 203
Corequisite(s): N/A
Repeatable for Credit: No
Core Course: Yes. Core elective.
Grade Type: LT
Typically Offered: Fall