Undergraduate Course: Political Economy (ECNM10060)

Course Outline
School	School of Economics	College	College of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate)	Availability	Available to all students
SCQF Credits	20	ECTS Credits	10
Summary	Economic policy cannot be understood by studying markets alone and, to be successful, it must take politics into account. The political game is very multifaceted. Voters choose politicians based on information from the media, politicians and special interest groups. Politicians choose policies based on advice from vested interests, and carefully consider future elections and their post-political careers. Politicians organise into political parties and committees that involve bargaining and internal voting. The course begins by examining the philosophical difficulties of evaluating the efficiency of political decision-making. This is followed by several theories of electoral competition, which are used as a basis for understanding the decisions of voters, politicians, media publishers, and special interest groups. The course takes a formal mathematical approach to specifying preferences, strategies and predicting equilibrium outcomes.
Course description	Not entered

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites	Students MUST have passed: Economics 2 (ECNM08006)	Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisites	Visiting students should usually have at least 3 Economics courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this) for entry to this course. This MUST INCLUDE courses in Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, and Introductory Econometrics. We will only consider University/College level courses.

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2014/15, Available to all students (SV1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Semester 1
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 20, Summative Assessment Hours 3, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 173 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 80 %, Coursework 20 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Class exam (December Diet) - 20% Degree examination (April/May Diet) - 80% Visiting Student Variant Assessment class exam - 40% 2 x essays (30% each)
Feedback	Not entered
Exam Information
Exam Diet	Paper Name		Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May)			2:00
Main Exam Diet S1 (December)			1:00

Academic year 2014/15, Part-year visiting students only (VV1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Semester 1
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 20, Summative Assessment Hours 1, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 175 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 40 %, Coursework 60 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Class exam (December Diet) - 20% Degree examination (April/May Diet) - 80% Visiting Student Variant Assessment class exam - 40% 2 x essays (30% each)
Feedback	Not entered
Exam Information
Exam Diet	Paper Name		Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S1 (December)			1:00

Learning Outcomes
Ability to understand and use economic concepts in the analysis of political processes. Ability to employ main economic tools (optimisation, theories of adverse selection ad moral hazard, Bayesian games). High-level understanding of democratic institutions including voting rules, independent policy advisors, and the media.

Reading List
None

Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills	Not entered
Keywords	PE

Contacts
Course organiser	Dr Andrew Clausen Tel: (0131 6)51 5131 Email: Andrew.Clausen@ed.ac.uk	Course secretary	Ms Dawn Hutcheon Tel: (0131 6)51 5958 Email: Dawn.Hutcheon@ed.ac.uk