ECON42190 Health and Welfare Economics

Academic Year 2023/2024

This is a Masters level module in Applied Welfare Economics with a specific slant towards health related examples. Students will first of all cover some basic issues in welfare economics such as measurement of welfare and welfare change and how these concepts are applied in a health context. The module will then cover issues such as equivalence scales, inequality and poverty, once again with specific health applications. The socioeconomic gradient of health will be covered via concentration curves and the concentration index and these concepts will also be explored in a dynamic setting, investigating issues such as health and income mobility. In all cases, where possible, illustrations will be provided using Irish data from sources such as the Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC), Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) and The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing. If the course is run in class face to face, then applied examples using Stata will be covered.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module students should:

1. have a basic understanding of measurement of welfare and change in welfare
2. understand how these concepts are applied in a health setting
3. understand how to measure inequality, poverty and equivalence scales in a health and multi-dimensional setting
4. be able to analyse the socioeconomic gradient of health outcomes in a static and dynamic setting using concentration and mobility indices

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

24

Autonomous Student Learning

100

Total

124

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Public health considerations permitting, this course will be delivered via face to face lectures. Class sizes are typically small enough to permit discussion/debate of issues and this is encouraged but is not explicitly included in the module delivery or assessment. Applied examples typically using the Stata package are provided for most of the content.

If face to face teaching is not possible then the material will be delivered via Brightspace. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations
Learning Recommendations:

It is strongly recommended that students who take this course should at the least have completed an advanced undergraduate course in microeconomics, ideally they should have taken the semester 1 course in Microeconomics in the MEcon Sc programme or equivalent. A knowledge of undergraduate econometrics is also desirable.

It is also recommended that students be familiar with the statistics/econometrics package Stata as examples using this package will feature throughout the module and the assignment will also be based around the package.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Assignment: < Description > Throughout the Trimester n/a Graded No

25

Examination: < Description > 2 hour End of Trimester Exam No Graded No

75


Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Summer No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Individual feedback will be provided to students on request.

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.
 
Spring
     
Lecture Offering 1 Week(s) - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 Wed 11:00 - 12:50