Ethics and Social Choice

lecon2069  2020-2021  Louvain-la-Neuve

Ethics and Social Choice
Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information below is subject to change, in particular that concerning the teaching mode (presential, distance or in a comodal or hybrid format).
5 credits
30.0 h
Q1

This biannual learning unit is being organized in 2020-2021
Teacher(s)
Maniquet François;
Language
English
Main themes
The course should study social ethics and welfare economics issues using the axiomatic tools of Social Choice Theory. Both welfarist and non-welfarist approaches should be presented. The static and the intertemporal so-cial choice frameworks should be introduced and equity conditions analyzed in both frameworks.
Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

1 The objective of the course is to provide a basic training in the part of social choice theory which is most rele-vant for social ethics, in general, and for welfare economics, more specifically.
 
Content
Social choice theory is composed of different subfields, all being interested in studying norms in the design of some mechanisms. All these subfields are formally connected to the Arrow theorem. The course is an introduction to the main structure of social choice theory as well as to some of its subfields: welfarism, fairness, the Harsanyi utilitarianism, bargaining theory. 
Teaching methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

The course will begin with a series of lectures, devoted to some of the main ideas and results in social choice theory. Then, students will be invited to study some important contributions to the field by themselves and present these contributions to the class.
Evaluation methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

The evaluation is composed of 
1) evaluation of the presentation by the student (see above),
2) a written exam, in which students will be requested to discuss some key idea of the field and prove some fundamental theorems.
Other information
The course will be composed of 9 lectures of 3 hours, beginning on Wednesday October 17.
Bibliography
A reading list will be distributed at the beginning of the course.
Faculty or entity
ECON


Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)

Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Aims
Master [120] in Economics: General

Master [60] in Economics : General

Master [120] in Economics: Econometrics