Economics of Social Innovation and Policy
Please answer appropriately 400 words per question based on the class slide ①②.
1. Explain, through appropriate examples and graphs, the concept of social efficiency and its link to economic efficiency. Discuss how the use of merit goods can generate and enhance welfare gains. What should the government do in order to ensure a better provision of public goods.
2. The objectives of welfare economics. What are the main drivers and barriers to supporting and implementing measures in favor of social welfare?
3. In which ways social innovators try to overcome market and institutional failures by exploring and discussing the link between social innovation, social welfare and social efficiency.
4. Discuss the main arguments in favor of supporting a ‘social state’ as presented by T. Piketty. What are the fiscal and monetary tools and mechanisms to sustain the social state?
5. Discuss the concept of Pareto optimality when applied to production and exchange. Use the Edgeworth box to show the contract curve for the isoquant maps. What are the limitations of the Pareto law and K. Arrow’s social choice postulate?
