Economic Growth and Distributive Justice Part I – The Role of the State

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  • What do we Need a State For?
    • Dear students,
      We are delighted that you have chosen to take our course 'Economic Growth and Distributive Justice'. We hope that you will not only benefit from the broad knowledge it offers, but also (or maybe, above all) profoundly enjoy the learning process. This week's lecture, the first in the course, will focus on a question you are all familiar with, or at least, with some version of it: Ask not what you can do for the state; ask what the state can do for you. We will try to answer this question, while introducing basic ideas and terminologies related to economics, law, philosophy, psychology, sociology and more. The notion of HAPPINESS will be a major theme, as it is the ultimate answer to the question above. As part of the discussion, we will touch upon diverse issues such as: defining happiness; finding out what makes us happy; and what the state can do to maximize the individuals’ wellbeing. We will discuss market failures such as externalities and free-riding on public goods, and understand the role of the state in overcoming them.

      So, are you ready?
      Let's begin!

      Please take a few minutes to fill in the Welcome Survey that will help us get to know you better. The teaching team Economic Growth and Distributive Justice
  • The Relationship between Efficiency and Distributive Justice
    • Dear students, We are happy to meet you all again, in the second week of our course 'Economic Growth and Distributive Justice'. We hope you enjoyed last week's session, and encourage you to continue participating actively. This week's lecture will delve deeper into the concepts of 'Economic Growth' and 'Distributive Justice'. Prof. Margalioth will take you on a short journey around the world, exploring rich and poor countries, describing veritable miracles that have taken place in some of them, and teaching you the intuition of the ECONOMIC GROWTH MODEL. The discussion will go on to analyze the complex correlation between EQUALITY and EFFICIENCY, using colorful examples such as desert islands, plane crashes and leaking buckets. Finally, the lecture will present a number of theoretical frameworks, through which one can think about these two focal concepts. Aren't you excited? So let's begin week 2! Wishing you all a great learning experience, The teaching team Economic Growth and Distributive Justice
  • Demonstrating Implications of Different Ethical Theories
    • Dear students,
      Thank you for joining us on the third week of the course 'Economic Growth and Distributive Justice'. This week Prof. Margalioth will teach you the main theories of distributive justice, explain how we can choose between them, and discuss their relative strengths and weaknesses. Then he will show you why the value of a dollar is not necessarily, or perhaps, necessarily not, the same for different individuals, using a term you should already be familiar with – MARGINAL UTILITY. Then we will present an eye-opening example – of one poor guy named Bob, who has been involved in a traffic accident – to show you why the conventional ANALYSIS OF TAXATION, used by policymakers all around the world to achieve Economic Growth and Distributive Justice, should be replaced with an alternative, much better analysis - to be presented in next week's class.

      Let's begin week 3!
      Economic Growth and Distributive Justice team
  • Distributive Justice: Measurement and Implications
    • Dear students,
      In the first part of this week's class we will discuss the policy question posed in lecture number 3, and offer a solution based on the methodology we are studying in this course. As we hope you will see, this methodology, which focuses on maximizing wellbeing, provides you (our policymakers) with clear answers. We will then move on to the question of measurement: what should we measure when assessing the level of Distributive Justice in society?

      So let's begin week 4!
      The team of Economic Growth and Distributive Justice

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