This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2016 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

ECC4830 - Welfare economics

6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL

Undergraduate, Postgraduate - Unit

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Faculty

Business and Economics

Organisational Unit

Department of Economics

Coordinator(s)

To be advised

Offered

Not offered in 2016

Synopsis

A study of theories in welfare economics, including conditions for Pareto optimality, welfare criteria, social choice, consumer surpluses, second versus third best, externalities and public goods as well as problems of applying these theories to such areas as public utility pricing, optimal taxation, road congestion, environmental protection, and public spending.

Outcomes

The learning goals associated with this unit are to:

understand the welfare economic foundation of public policies
analyse the pros and cons, costs and benefits of economic measures and changes from the perspective of social welfare.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 40%
Examination: 60%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Independent study may include associated readings, assessment and preparation for scheduled activities. The unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)