Campus

Master

Campus
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  • Summer term 2026

    All lectures and tutorials from summer semester 2026

    Die Fakultät begrüßt ihre Interessenten
    Image: Sandra Markgraf
  • MW23.1 | Adv. Public Economics I (Public Policy)

    Public Policy in Open Economies

    Content

    Globalization has brought about competition among states that is driven by factor mobility. This competition will likely lead to an erosion of the welfare state, induce a race to the bottom of capital taxation and erode national regulatory systems. In general, it will suffer from the same type of market failure which induced the respective government activity in the closed economy in the first place. In this course, the mechanisms behind these market failures will be analysed and possible remedies discussed.

    Structure

    1. Introduction
    2. Tax Competition
    3. Welfare State Competition
    4. Ecological Competition
    5. Limited Liability, Risk Taking and the Competition of Bank
    6. The Competition of Competition Rules

    Course material

    For the course material and e-learning questions, please go to Moodle.External link

    Literature

    Organisational Details

    • Offered every winter term

    Exam

    • There will be a written exam at the end of the semester. 
    • Exams of the previous terms can be found here: Exam 1pdf, 142 kb · de
  • MW23.2 | Adv. Public Economics II (Education)

    Economics of Education

    Content

    The module consists of two parts.

    1. Lectures

    Theoretical basics of education economics and empirical evidence are presented. The aim is to provide an understanding of why people invest in education, what private and social returns to education are and who should finance education. These concepts are then applied to specific topics like intergenerational mobility, student migration and spending on school resources.

    2. Tutorials and assignments

    After introducing the statistical software Stata, students apply their knowledge of education economics from the first part in empirical assignments. Students use real-world data and perform econometric analysis in Stata. The assignments guide students through (partial) replication of economic research articles.

    Prerequisites:

    • Knowledge of basic concepts in econometrics, in particular regression analysis
    • Interest in statistical analysis with Stata
    • Experience in applied data analysis is helpful, but not required

    Course material

    Organisational Details

    • Offered regularly in summer - alternating with Adv. PE III and IV.

    Grading

    • Exam (1/3 of grade)
    • Assignments (2/3 of grade) 

    Credits

    • 6 ECTS
    • 3 DigiLab points
  • MW23.3 | Adv. Public Economics IV (Special Topics)

    Content

    The module consists of two parts.

    1. Lectures

    This course focuses on the relationships between education on the one hand and information, incentives, and innovation on the other hand. The course introduces theoretical concepts and then discusses empirical evidence on a variety of topics, including university choice, migration decisions after university, language learning and technical change. Empirical evidence is discussed especially in the context of establishing causal relationships.

    The lectures can be seen as being complementary to Advanced Public Economics II (MW23.2): Education Economics.

    2. Tutorials and assignments

    After introducing the statistical software Stata, students apply their knowledge from the first part in empirical assignments. Students use real-world data and perform econometric analysis in Stata. The assignments guide students through (partial) replication of an economic research article.

    Prerequisites:

    • Knowledge of basic concepts in econometrics, in particular regression analysis
    • Interest in statistical analysis with Stata
    • Experience in applied data analysis is helpful, but not required

    Course material

    Organisational Details

    • Offered regularly in summer - alternating with Adv. PE II and III.

    Grading

    • Exam (1/3 of grade)
    • Assignments (2/3 of grade) 

    Credits

    • 6 ECTS
    • 3 DigiLab points
  • MW23.5 | Adv. Public Economics III (Health Economics)

    Health Economics

    Content

    This course combines applied microeconomics with public finance / social policy questions. A particular focus will be on the various incentives which individuals face in their health-related behavior and which are largely shaped by the form of their health insurance. Possible questions: Why do developed societies decide to have social health insurance? What is the optimal design of health insurance? What about risk selection? Other topics will also be dealt with (e. g. concerning the special role played by physicians).

    Structure

    Part I: Introduction
    1. Introduction
    3. Health and education (health production)

    Part II: Insurance market
    5. Market failure and justice
    6. Optimal health insurance contracts
    7. Risk selection and regulation

    Part III: Providers
    8. Physicians as a supplier of health care services
    10. Paying providers

    (Numbering of chapters accourding to book chapters)

    Literature

    • Zweifel, Breyer, Kifmann (2009): Health Economics, Springer (or the German edition).
    • Further references will be announced in class.

    Organisational Details

    • Offered regularly in summer - alternating with Adv. PE II and IV.

    Exam

    • Written exam; and may consist of additional forms of students' assessments (the exact weights will be announced at the beginning of the course).
  • MW23.6 | Adv. Public Finance

    Content

    This course is about different public activities related to the revenue and the expenditure side of the public budget. As to the revenues, in Part I commodity taxes will be discussed with a focus on efficiency and income taxes with a focus on distributional concerns. Public funds may, however, not only be used for redistribution. A major reason for raising revenue is to finance public expenditures related to market failure. In Part II, two types of market failure will be at the center: public goods and externalities.

    Whenever appropriate both sides of the budget will be studied in an interrelated way.

    Course material

    For the course material and e-learning questions, please go to Moodle.External link

    Literature

    • Atkinson, A. and J. Stiglitz (1980), Lectures on Public Economics, McGraw-Hill Singapore.
    • Hindriks, J. and G. Myles (2013): Intermediate Public Economics, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
    • Myles, G. (1995), Public Economics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
    • Further references will be announced in class.

    For a refresher of math skills: 

    • Chiang, Alpha (1984): Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics, McGraw-Hill, Singapore.
    • Hoy, M. et al. (2011): Mathematics for Eoconomics, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
    • Wisniewski, M. (2013): Mathematics for Economics, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.

    Organisational Details

    • Offered every summer term

    Exam

    • There will be a 24-hour take-home exam at the end of the semester.

    Exams of the previous terms can be found here: Exam 1pdf, 166 kb · de

  • MW23.4 | Seminar Public Finance

    We regularly offer master seminars, mostly in the summer term. The seminars deal with topics related to public finance and public policy. In the following, you find an overview of the chair's seminars:

  • MW26.5 | Applied Empirical Analyses

    Module description

    The main goal of the module MW26.5 offered by the Chair of Public Finance is that students do an empirical analysis based on theoretical economic literature.    

    The structure of the module is as follows: By the end of October (winter term) or April (summer term) students who want to participate in the module inform the chair about their interest. In consultation with the chair, a topic and a dataset/ datasets for the empirical analysis is chosen. During the semester, the participants of the module are expected to conduct their statistical analyses on their own. If needed, an appointment with the supervisor can be scheduled. The results of the empirical analysis together with (additional) theoretical literature must be presented in an oral presentation at the end of the semester. In addition, students are expected to write a report on their analysis and findings.

    The chair has several datasets which the students are invited to use. Those datasets mainly focus on migration and include data on international students as well as language learning opportunities. Questions such as "How does the assimilation of international students at university work? Do friends play a role in this assimilation process?" or "How does climate change affect language learning?" are two examples of questions that can be answered with this data. However, students are also invited to use other datasets and discuss other possible topics with the chair.

    Important to note is that this module requires some knowledge of how to conduct an empirical analysis using statistical software (e.g. STATA or R). This module does not provide an introduction to any statistical software. In addition, it has to be mentioned that the number of participants is limited and depends on the chair’s capacities.

    Successfully passing this course is rewarded with 6 DigiLab points. This course also provides an excellent preparation for an empirical master thesis at the Chair of Public Economics.

  • MW26.6 | Regional Dynamics

    Content

    This course is about two different, but related perspectives for the study of regional dynamics: the perspective of economics and the perspective of regional science (geography). Students will learn about different methods in the context of real-world examples. The aim is to make students aware of differences and similarities.

    Course material

    The course material will be available here.

    Organisation Details

    • This course is compulsory for the specialisation area Regional Dynamics. This area provides an interdisciplinary approach to a better understanding of regional dynamics. The perspectives both of economics and regional science (geography) are part of the program. This allows a more comprehensive approach to topics like migration, innovation and, more generally, economic and social change, which very often have an important regional dimension. Furthermore, also topics of special relevance for the local region are addressed. A special feature of this area is that it can be studied with an economics and a geographic background. German and English language skills are required for that specialisation area.
    • Offered every winter term

    Exam

    • There will be a written exam.

Every term

General Key Qualifications -
Applied Empirical Analyses		 Instructor
Meeting on appointment  Julia Peter