Formation/Cours

At the end of the course, the student should be able to :
– understand why Welfare States exist;
– Understand how benefit design tries to reduce moral hazard and poverty traps.

1. Welfare States
1.1 Why did welfare states emerge? How did they develop?
1.2 The building blocks: Social insurance, social assistance, and individual insurance;
1.3 The economics of state intervention;
1.4 The economics of insurance, moral hazard and adverse selection;

2. Welfare state’s main schemes (excluding pensions)
2.1 Unemployment insurance: make-work pay;
2.2 Social Assistance;
2.3 Child and family policies;

3. Pensions
3.1 The traditional pay-as-you-go arrangement;
3.2 A demographic bomb?
3.3 The implicit debt problem;
3.4 Case studies on pension systems and reforms.