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- Code:
- ECOM-452
- Field:
- Microeconomics
- Targets:
- Master’s students Research Master's students
- Organiser:
- University of Helsinki - Economics
- Instructor:
- Hannu Vartiainen
- Period:
- Period 3
- Format:
- Lecture
- Method:
- Contact teaching
- Venue:
- Economicum
- Enrollment:
In case of conflicting information consider the Sisu/Course/Moodle pages the primary source of information.
Aalto and Hanken economics students can enroll in their home university’s SISU! Further instructions can be found on the How to enroll page, also for other students.
Before taking and completing the course make sure that the credits can be counted towards your degree at your home university by checking which courses are included in your curriculum or by contacting your home university’s student/learning services.
Content
In what sense does market economy reflect fairness? (does it at all?) Can the system be improved in this sense? Is there a fundamental conflict between economic efficiency and social equality? Can inherently moral notions such as justice be given an economic meaning?
The objective of the course is to draw a big picture of what economic justice means and how notions of fairness can be incorporated into economic analysis. Attention is paid on formation of social norms, which embody moral centiments such as justice, reciprocity, and envy. Elements of welfare economics are introduced and intellectual origins of ethical ideas like utilitarianism and egalitarianism are laid down. Influential fairness standards such as the golden rule and categorical imperative are studied. Particular attention is put on possible tensions between efficiency and equality. As an application, we study implications of justice on integenerational problems, e.g. climate change.
Outline of the course:
Week 1: Morality and social contract
Week 2: Evolution of social norms
Week 3: Power, symmetry, and distribution
Week 4: Utilitarianism and egalitarianism
Week 5: Market system and planned system
Week 6: Integenerational considerations
Learning outcomes
After the course, the student should
- know the role of fairness in economic theory;
- understand the nature of equality-efficiency tradeoff in economics;
- know basic theories of fair allocation and elements of welfare economics;
- understand axiomatic method in social choice and game theory;
- be able to model formation of norms and know their underlying mechanisms;
- apply models of fairness to economic problems such as intergenerational planning