30051 - Measurement of Inequality and Human Capital

Academic Year 2011/2012

  • Docente: Michele Costa
  • Credits: 5
  • SSD: SECS-S/01
  • Language: Italian
  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in STATISTICAL SCIENCES (cod. 8054)

Learning outcomes

The purpose of the course is to introduce the most widespread methods for inequality measurement and human capital evaluation. A particular emphasis is used to uncover the Gini inequality index, the entroy indexes and the decomposition of inequality indicators.

Course contents

Statistical methods for inequality measurement

The measurement of total inequality

The inequality decomposition

Gini index and generalized entroy indices

Unidimensional measurement of poverty

Poverty lines, headcount ratio H, human poverty index HPI

Multidimensional measurement of poverty

Latent variables models for human capital measurement

Readings/Bibliography

A. Sen, On economic inequality, Clarendon, 1997

Teaching methods

Italian households micro data on social and economic conditions collected by the Bank of Italy are analyzed at computer laboratory

Assessment methods

oral exam

Teaching tools

Computer laboratory

Office hours

See the website of Michele Costa