This course is devoted to market failures and welfare economics. The first part addresses fundamental issues of welfare economics from the perspective of a policy maker who designs and implements collective decisions. It focuses in particular on social choice theory, the foundations of bargaining and welfare economics, and mechanism design. The second part focuses on the three classical conditions under which market outcomes lead to an inefficient allocation of resources: externalities, imperfect competition and asymmetric information. It addresses these questions both from a positive and normative perspective. The intention of the course is to familiarize students with the standard tools of modern economic theory and to train them in applying these tools to actual economic problems.
Literature:
Mas-Colell, Whinston, and Green (1995), Microeconomic Theory, Part III and Part V
Exam:
Final Exam: July 24 at HU Room tba
Exercises:
Tianchi Li
Thursday, 12:00pm to 14:00pm
April 24 – May 22 at HU Berlin, Spandauerstr. 1, Room HS 203
May 29 – July 17 at HU Berlin, Spandauerstr. 1, Room HS 203