Elective literature:

• J. Rawls: A Theory of Justice. Harvard University Press (1971)
• J. Roemer: Theories of Distributive Justice. Harvard University Press (1996)

The lecture "Welfare economics" deals with the question of efficiency and distributional properties of economic allocations, in particular allocations of market equilibria. The lecture is based on the two welfare theorems: The first welfare theorem (under weak preconditions) says that every competitive equilibrium is efficient.

According to the second welfare theorem (under stronger preconditions), every efficient allocation can be preserved as a competetive equilibrium through adequate choices of initial endowments. Afterwards, the terms and definitions of envy-freeness and the related concept of egalitarian equivalence in the context of the general theory of equilibrium will be discussed.

The second part of the lecture deals with the principle of "social justice" (i.e. distributational justice).The fundamental principles of utilitarism, Rawl's theory of justice as well as John Roemer's theory of equality of opportunity are explained and critically analyzed.

The course will be held every two years in the summer.

The total workload for this course is approximately 135 hours. For further information see German version.

See German version.

The assessment consists of a written exam at the end of the semester (according to Section 4 (2), 1 or 2 of the examination regulation).