Workload: 40 hours per week
Faculty: Franziska Gassmann (Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, Maastricht University), Christina Behrendt (Ìnternational Labour Organization) Denis de Crombrugghe (Quantitative Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Maastricht University
Assesment: In class participation, assignment

Content and objectives
Can a new social assistance system reduce poverty? This course deals with some of the most complex issues in social protection, such as the relationship between welfare states and economic efficiency from a theoretical and empirical perspective.


Literature

• Stewart K.G. (2005), Introduction to Applied Econometrics, Thomson Learning, ISBN 0-534-36916-2 (available at Academic Bookstore Maastricht, Bouillonstraat 12; and in the FEBA building, room F 0.01, with a discount).
  The planned syllabus is covered by Ch. 1 through 6, 8, 10 and 14. The book includes far more material for interested readers.
• Stata Corporation (2005): Stata Release 9: User’s Guide and Reference Manuals, Stata Corporation 2005. [Website http://www.stata.com ]
  The complete sets of manuals is available for consultation in the University Library (1st floor, shelf at back of ICT desk; not for loan).
• Deaton A. (1997): The Analysis of Household Surveys. World Bank & Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-5254-4. (Background for survey analysis; more advanced than Stewart. Contains a Stata code appendix.)
• Castel Paulette (2004): Moldova, Public and private Social Safety Net, manuscript, World Bank. (Background information on social assistance in Moldova.)