Workload: 30 hours per week
Faculty: Prof. Dr. Chris de Neubourg, MGSoG, Maastricht University, Dr. Anna McCord, School of Economics, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Assesment: Assignments, written exam

Content and objectives
What are the precise differences between the US and European welfare states? Welfare states all over the world differ not only in how much is spent, but also on what the budget is spent and how it is spent. This course continues the comparison between different social protection policies and welfare states that was introduced in ‘The Economics of the Welfare States” and stimulates an in-depth discussion of the differences. It presents important questions such as, does a larger welfare state reduce poverty and shows the student how to approach those problems. It also looks into the social protection policies of developing countries, e.g. public work programmes.


Literature

• Neubourg C. de, Briefing Book EU Social Safety Net programmes, World Bank, 2004
• Alesina A. and E.L. Glaeser (2004), Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe, A World of Difference, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• McCord (2006) Public Works, in Clark (ed) Elgar Companion to Development Studies.
• Neubourg C. de (2008), Social Protection Systems and Nation Building, in Peter Townsend (ed.), Universal Social Security Provisions, forthcoming.