Handbook

This course is focused on two related issues: development finance and public finance. The approach of the course is policy-oriented rather than financial; an international and comparative approach is taken to public finance. The first part of the course provides a brief introduction to basic financial concepts and then moves on to analyzing the financial feasibility of urban development projects. Commercial feasibility software is integrated into teaching of project feasibility. The second part of the course covers the revenue sources of state and local government and the use of these resources to finance local infrastructure and development. Property taxes, bonding, impact fees, pricing and various alternative mechanisms used to pay for infrastructure are discussed. The course also includes an introduction to the theory of taxation, an analysis of fiscal disparities and regional finance in the Australian context. The course ends with a discussion of the impact of tax and other fiscal policy on investment behaviour, and the standard measures used to analyse the effectiveness of public investment.