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Amado da Silva, Rui Baptista
Syllabus The course covers several topics on public policy regarding the industrial and services sectors, focusing particularly on the impact of technology (taken as broad concept which includes the specific nature of goods, services and cost structures) on the need for public policy to promote market efficiency and also the competitiveness of national firms.
Assessment will be made through written essays plus a final take-home exam. Essays and exams can be written in English or Portuguese.
Grading: the homework essays are worth 40% of the final grade. The remaining 60% are assigned to the take-home exam.
Detailed curriculum Classes #1 and #2 (29/09/00 & 6/10/00-RB): Market Failure and State Intervention. An economic rationale for the role of the government in markets: The concept of market failure as a justification for state intervention. Types of market failure: public goods; semi-public goods; externalities; natural monopoly. Public policies towards public goods and externalities. Technology and market failure: the problem of the appropriability of returns to R&D; network externalities, product compatibility and market failure. Lecture Notes: Public Choice and State Intervention Class #3 (13/10/00-RB): Natural Monopoly and Economic Regulation. Public utilities as natural monopolies. Sate ownership versus privatisation. Regulation and de-regulation. Theories of regulation. Natural monopoly regulation: problems and economic effects. Rate of return regulation and price cap regulation. Contestable markets and potential competition. Vertical disintegration, de-regulation and competition. Efficient pricing and investment policies for public services: non-linear pricing and peak-load pricing. Class #4 (20/10/00-RB): Industrial development policies in Portugal: 1960-1995. The macro and microeconomic evolution of Portugal since 1960: the significance of public policies. Industrial and trade policy objectives and the conditions for entry into industrial markets: the role of public administration and the strategies of entrepreneurs. Effects over specific industries.
Class #5 (27/10/00-AS): The concept of industry: evolution. Classical definition of industry ("manufacturing") and of industrial development: production functions and input-output models; standardised classification of industrial activities. Demand-side concepts: product and geographical markets in the sense of Adam Smith's definition of industry. Industrial development and the information society. Class #6 (10/11/00-AS): De-industrialisation, Globalisation and the Role of Technology. A discussion of the concepts of "de-industrialisation" and "globalisation" as an application of the evolution presented in Class I: the case of industrial development policies in Portugal. Technology versus unemployment: increases in productivity and compensation mechanisms in the digital age. Class #7 (17/11/00-AS): Industrial Markets and Government Intervention within the Mason-Bain-Scherer Paradigm. The concept of "performance" within the paradigm. The role of public policy and, more specifically, industrial policy as a complement of market mechanisms and as a promoter of efficiency, growth and competitiveness. Class #8 (24/11/00-AS): Instruments and objectives of industrial policy for development - the European Union Context. The context of state intervention in industrial markets. The trade-off between industrial policy and competition policy: competition versus competitiveness. Other relevant policy trade-offs: regional employment and environmental policies. The Portuguese experience: EU structural funds and integrated development policies.
28/11/00: Take-home Exam - Hand-in Deadline.
Class #9 (?): Class Discussion of the Take-home Exams.
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3rd Edition (2000) |
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Industrial Development Policy