SUSTAINABLE WELFARE STATE

The course is among those characterizing the Master's Degree Programme in GLOBAL CCOUNTIG AND FINANCE.

This course focuses on the role of the government in the economy The aim is to provide an understanding of the reasons for government intervention and welfare institutions, and the response of economic agents to the government's actions, analyzing benefits and consequences of possible government policies and their sustainability in post-pandemic times.
The first part of the course will cover the theoretical foundations to analyze the role of the government as a social insurer. The second part of the course will review a selection of the most debated issues in the field.
Special emphasis is on current policy issues such as pension policy, health care policy, and pandemic recovery policies, and their sutainabiility, in an international perspective.

The aim is to provide a solid understanding of the reasons for government intervention and welfare institutions, endow students with the skills and competencies they need to analyze benefits and consequences of possible government policies and their sustainability in post-pandemic times, to make tham capable of interpreting a dynamic and supranational economic environment and responding to the most evolved needs of the welfare state through a concrete endowment of tools and methods.

Students are expected to be comfortable with the material covered in introductory and intermediate microeconomics courses. Some familiarity with
statistics and exposure to regression analysis are helpful.

1. Role of Government in the Economy
2. The Government as a Social Insurer and Challenges to the Sustainability of the Welfare State
3. Globalization, Pandemics and the Sustainability of Healthcare Systems
4. Sustainability of Social Security Systems
5. Pandemic Recovery policies and their Sustainability
Application: Next Generation EU
Application: Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan

Nicholas Barr, 2020. The Economics of the Welfare State, 6th Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Jonathan Gruber, 2022. Public Finance and Public Policy, 7th Edition. New York: Worth Publishers.

Additional readings will be made available on moodle.

Written exam (exercises and open-ended questions).
Students attending the course will be given the opportunity of being partly assessed through class presentations.

The grading scale (how the grades will be assigned) is the same for attending or non-attending students:
1. scores in the 18-22 range will be awarded in the presence of:
- sufficient knowledge and ability to understand applied in relation to the programme;
- sufficient ability to apply knowledge and understanding and judgment;
- sufficient communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language relating to the subject;
2. scores in the 23-26 range will be awarded in the presence of:
- good knowledge and ability to understand applied in relation to the programme;
- good ability to apply knowledge and understanding and judgement;
- good communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language relating to the subject;
3. scores in the 27-30 range will be awarded in the presence of:
- excellent knowledge and ability to understand applied in relation to the programme;
- excellent ability to apply knowledge and understanding and judgment;
- excellent communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language relating to the subject.
4. the score 30L (30 cum laude / con lode) may be awarded for outstanding performance.

written

The grading scale (how the grades will be assigned) is the same for attending or non-attending students:
1. scores in the 18-22 range will be awarded in the presence of:
- sufficient knowledge and ability to understand applied in relation to the programme;
- sufficient ability to apply knowledge and understanding and judgment;
- sufficient communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language relating to the subject;
2. scores in the 23-26 range will be awarded in the presence of:
- good knowledge and ability to understand applied in relation to the programme;
- good ability to apply knowledge and understanding and judgement;
- good communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language relating to the subject;
3. scores in the 27-30 range will be awarded in the presence of:
- excellent knowledge and ability to understand applied in relation to the programme;
- excellent ability to apply knowledge and understanding and judgment;
- excellent communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language relating to the subject.
4. the score 30L (30 cum laude / con lode) may be awarded for outstanding performance.

The course mostly follows a conventional teaching approach, combined with active and flipped learning activities.

For any course-related information, students should trust only the course website on moodle (password provided in class or during office hours).

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development