Public economics seeks to understand how governments, or other collections of agents, behave and suggest how an optimal government would behave. The first part of the course analyzes collective decision making, violations of the conditions of the First Welfare theorem such as externalities which may provides a normative basis for government action. The second part of the course concentrates on government behaviour such as regulation, public enterprise control, public expenditure growth, pensions systems, health and other merit goods provision. The third part of the course will be devoted to the study of taxation and its effects on the economy