Project Tour,& Welcome Speech;

Theorem and the role of single peaked preferences, and the empirical validity of the Median Voter Theorem.

Academic Course (1): Introduction to Welfare Economics

Topics covered: Normative versus positive economics, the Pareto and Kaldor-Hicks decision rules, welfare functions (Rawlsian and Utilitarian), welfare maximisation and various ways of measuring welfare.

Academic Course (2): The Fundamental Welfare Theorems

Topics covered: the Edgeworth box, the First Welfare Theorem and its policy implications, the Second Welfare Theorems, taxation, taxation and changes in endowments.

Academic Course (3): Externalities and Public Goods

Topics covered: Positive and negative externalities, deriving the socially optimal level of externalities, the Coase theorem for production and consumption externalities, forms of government regulation to correct externalities. Defining public goods and how they are different from other goods, the provision of discrete public goods and variable public goods, the free rider problem from a game theoretic perspective, and how governments can intervene to provide an efficient level of public goods.

Academic Course (4): Asymmetric Information, Voting and the Aggregation of Preferences

Topics covered: Adverse selection, the market for lemons, quantity choice with adverse selection, the role of insurance and the special problems that asymmetric information brings, signalling and the Spence Model, and moral hazard. Voting rules (e.g. pair-wise contests and rank ordering) and their problems, Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem, the Median Voter Theorem and the role of single peaked preferences, and the empirical validity of the Median Voter Theorem.

Academic Course (5): Behavioural Economics for Public Policy

Topics covered: The key insights from behavioural economics (including ‘nudges’) and the challenges and opportunities they raise for policy makers.

Academic Course (6):Law and Economics for Public Policy.

Topics covered: Law and Economics, the Economics of Crime and Liability, Proportionality and Internalisation of Law.

Group Closing Report & Closing Ceremony