Prof Stephen Jenkins OLD 2.29

This course is compulsory on the BSc in Social Policy, BSc in Social Policy and Economics, BSc in Social Policy and Sociology and BSc in Social Policy with Government. This course is available on the BSc in Politics and BSc in Politics and International Relations. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

Places on this course are limited to 45 and priority is given to Social Policy students in the first instance. If places remain available once Social Policy students have been accommodated, they will be offered on a first come first served basis to students from outside the Department. If you would like to take SA104 as an outside option, please contact the Undergraduate Programme Manager who will be able to advise you on availability (contact details available on the Social Policy web pages).

This course is not available to third year students.

No prior knowledge of economics is required.

This course provides an introduction to the economics of social policy and the economics of the income distribution. The course begins by introducing basic economic concepts and principles and discussing their application to different social policy areas, including health care, social care, education and housing. Key concepts include supply, demand and elasticities, externalities and market failure, private insurance and social insurance, and quasi-markets. The course goes on to analyse the distribution of household income and the drivers of poverty and inequality, including unemployment, low wages and wage inequality. It covers concepts of human capital and productivity and looks at a range of policy responses, including minimum wage legislation, trade union policy, government economic management, taxation and the social security system. Throughout, the course emphasises the importance of understanding political goals in assessing the effectiveness or justice of economic and social policies, and seeks to encourage students to draw on both theory and empirical evidence in addressing its core questions. The course is taught without mathematics and is designed to be suitable both for students with no prior knowledge of economics and for those who have taken A level.

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of classes in the MT. 10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of classes in the LT. 1 hour and 30 minutes of classes in the ST.

Students will be expected to complete exercises as required for classes and will write up to three formative essays during the course of the year. 

J Le Grand, C Propper & R Robinson, The Economics of Social Problems, Fourth Edition, Palgrave, 2008; A B Atkinson, N Barr, Economics of the Welfare State, Fifth Edition, OUP 2012; J Le Grand, The Other Invisible Hand Delivering Public Services through Choice and Competition, Princeton, 2007; H Glennerster, Understanding the Finance of Welfare. The Policy Press, 2009; J Hills, Inequality and the State, OUP, 2004; J Hills, Good Times, Bad Times: The Welfare Myth of Them and US, The Policy Pres, 2014; A B Atkinson, Inequality: What Can Be Done? Harvard University Press, 2015.

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours) in the summer exam period.