ECON4271 – Distributive Justice and Economic Inequality
Course description
Course content
The course is an introduction to economic approaches to justice and fairness from both theoretical and empirical perspectives.
The course starts by a discussion of the possibility for a society to aggregate different views on what is good. Arrow’s impossibility theorem states that that this is infeasible, but subsequent approaches have explored how this result may be circumvented.
The most common way to avoid the impossibility result is to assume that well-beings of agents can be both measured and interpersonally compared. These indexes of well-beings, i.e. individual utilities, can then be aggregated into a measure of social welfare, as in the case of utilitarianism.
An alternative is to restrict the attention to one-dimensional issues, such as individual income, health, distance from a facility, etc… In particular, a large literature has analyzed how to rank income distributions in terms of social welfare or poverty measures.
The course also contains a part on the empirical measurement of social welfare and inequality: How can we rank income distributions and Lorenz curves, what properties should measures of inequality satisfy, how can we derive measure from theoretical views of equal versus unequal distributions, and how do we measure inequality in practice.
Finally, the course covers a number of empirical questions related to inequality:
- How has inequality evolved in different parts of the world?
- How can we explain these changes?
- To what extent has inequality become more or less “fair” over time?
- What is the interplay between inequality, economic performance, and public policies.
Learning outcome
Knowledge
You should know
- Understand the challenge of measuring social welfare
- Know the main approaches to distributional justice
- Compare different inequality indices and know their strengths and weaknesses
- Know how inequality has evolved in the world and explain parts of this evolution
Skills
You should be able to
- Choose the most appropriate approach to measuring social welfare for each economic problem
- Perform a sensible welfare analysis for understanding the effects of economic policies
- Be able to undertake an analysis of inequality
Competence
You should
- Be able to read and understand project reports and journal articles that make use of the concepts and methods that are introduced in the course
- Be able to make use of the course content in your own academic work, for example in analyses that are part of the master’s thesis
Admission
Students admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.
Students not admitted to the Master’s programme in Economics or the Master’s programme in Economic Theory and Econometrics (Samfunnsøkonomisk analyse), can apply for admission to one of our study programmes, or apply for guest student status.
Prerequisites
Formal prerequisite knowledge
You must fulfill one of these prerequisites:
- Bachelor's degree in Economics, or equivalent.
- ECON3220 – Microeconomics 3 / ECON4220 – Microeconomics 3, or equivalent.
Recommended previous knowledge
- You would benefit from prior knowledge in ECON3120 – Mathematics 2: Calculus and Linear Algebra / ECON4120 – Mathematics 2: Calculus and Linear Algebra, or equivalent.
Overlapping courses
- 5 credits overlap with ECON3270 – Distributive Justice (discontinued)
- 5 credits overlap with ECON4270 – Distributive Justice (discontinued)
Teaching
Lectures and seminars.
Examination
Normally, this course has a 3-hour written school exam.
For the spring 2020 applies:
The examination will be a home examination in Inspera. The home exam will be an open-book exam, where all written and printed resources as well as technical support is allowed. The time schedule will be published on the semester page.
Exam papers with comments from examiner
Submit assignments in Inspera
You submit your assignment in the digital examination system Inspera. Read about how to submit your assignment.
Use of sources and citation
You should familiarize yourself with the rules that apply to the use of sources and citations. If you violate the rules, you may be suspected of cheating/attempted cheating.
Language of examination
The problem set will be given in English. Answers can be given in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or in English.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.
Explanations and appeals
Resit an examination
If you are sick or have another valid reason for not attending the regular exam, we offer a postponed exam later in the same semester.
See also our information about resitting an exam.
Withdrawal from an examination
It is possible to take the exam up to 3 times. If you withdraw from the exam after the deadline or during the exam, this will be counted as an examination attempt.
Special examination arrangements
Application form, deadline and requirements for special examination arrangements.
Evaluation
The course is subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students to participate in a more comprehensive evaluation.