This course is also coded SA4F7

Professor N Barr

Optional for MSc European Political Economy, MSc Politics and Government in the European Union, MSc European Studies: Ideas and Identities, MSc European Studies (Research), MSc Public Management and Governance, MSc European Social Policy, MSc Social Policy and Development, MSc Social Policy and Planning, MSc Social Policy (Research), MSc Political Science and Political Economy, MPA Public and Economic Policy/MPA Public Policy and Management/MPA International Development/MPA European Public and Economic Policy and LSE-Sciences Po Double Degree in European Studies.

Intermediate micro-economics is helpful.

The course applies economic theory to social policy. It explains why governments are involved in social policy in all European (and other advanced) countries, not only to reduce poverty and social exclusion but also for reasons of economic efficiency. The course starts by establishing the building blocks of economic theory and then applies the theory to social insurance, poverty and social exclusion, retirement pensions, health and health care, higher education, social policy in the post-communist transition countries, and future challenges for the wider Europe.

Ten one-hour lectures and 10 one-and-a-half-hour seminars, LT.

Two 2,000 word essays.

A. B. Atkinson (1999), The Economic Consequences of Rolling Back the Welfare State, London and Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press; Nicholas Barr (2001), The Welfare State as Piggy Bank: Information, risk, uncertainty and the role of the State, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press; Nicholas Barr (ed.) (2005), Labor Markets and Social Policy: The Accession and Beyond, Washington DC: The World Bank; Peter A. Diamond (2004), ‘Social security’, American Economic Review, 94/1 (March), 1-24; Pierre Pestiaud (2006), The Welfare State in the European Union, OUP. Nicholas Barr and Peter Diamond (2008), Reforming pensions: Principles and Policy choices, OUP.

There will be one two-hour examination in the ST (100%).