42614 - Economics of Inequality

Learning outcomes

The course offers an introduction to the economic analysis of inequality and of the main theories of distributive justice. It aims to provide the conceptual tools needed to allow students to understand the main theoretical issues and to take part, with sufficient precision and autonomy, to the contemporary political and economic debate.

Course contents

The course is organized in lectures and seminars, as detailed in the following program. Lectures (16 hours in remote on MS TEAMS plus other 6 hours in presence. ….) aim to introduce students to the core tenets of the discipline. Seminars (6 hours) aim to provide occasions for in-depth discussions of class materials. The division in lectures and seminars is detailed below.

For the seminar section of the course, students will be divided in six small groups. Each group will present the outcome of his research. The seminars will occur remotely on MS TEAMS (6 hours, one hour for each group). 

A total commitment of 28 hours for student is expected. 

Regardless of the health-related conditions and the specific organization of the course, students will be able to follow the lessons of the entire course remotely on MS TEAMS.

The course offers an introduction to the economic analysis of inequality, both at national and global level.

The lectures will cover the following arguments:

+ From the Belle Epoque to present: the dynamics of inequality in advanced countries and its interpretations. 

+ International and global inequality

+ Poverty and inequality in the least developed countries

+ Inequality and global warming

The topic of the seminars will be announced at the beginning of the course.

The detailed syllabus will be available at the course start.

Readings/Bibliography

The complete bibliography will be given at the beginning of the course. 

1. From the Belle Epoque to present: the dynamics of inequality in advanced countries and its interpretations. Patrimonial capitalism, meritocracy and inequality in advanced countries

Power point presentation;

Piketty T., Capital in XXI century, Belknap Press 2014;

Piketty, T., Capital and Ideology, Belnkap Press, 2020.

2. International and global inequality

Power point presentation;

Milanovic B., Worlds Apart. Measuring International and Global Inequality, Princeton U.P. 2007.

Milanovic B., Global Inequality. A New Approach for the Age of Globalization, Belknap Press, 2016.

3. Poverty and inequality in the least developed countries

Power point presentation;

Deininger K., Squire L., (1998), New ways of looking at old issues: inequality and growth, Journal of Development Economics, vol. 57, 259-287.

Lipton M., (2009), Land Reform in Developing Countries, Routledge, 2009, chapter 2;

4. Inequality and global warming

Power point presentation;

Burke M. et al. (2015), Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic production, Nature, vol. 527, 235-239.

Diffennbaugh S., Burke M. (2019), Global warming has increased global economic inequality, PNAS, vol. 116, 9808-9813.

Piketty T. e Chancel (2013), Carbon and inequality. From Kyoto to Paris: trends in the global inequality of carbon emissions and prospects for an equitable adaptation fund, Paris School of Economics.

 

 

Teaching methods

Traditional teaching; students' active participation through seminar presentation.

Assessment methods

At the course start the topic of the seminar will be announced. Students will be divided in six small groups, each of which will examine in depth one specific aspect of the topic.

The assessment involves two parts: a) a group presentation of about 40 minutes (followed by discussion) on the specific aspect of the topic assigned; b) an individual written report on the general topic.

The weight of the class presentation is 0.4; the weight of the report is 0,6. The score of the group presentation is identical for all the group members. Active participation in the discussions will be rewarded. 

The written report is individual. This must be understood as a sort of "technical covering report" of no more than 4 pages in which a synthetic critical assessment of the general topic is presented (for instance, observed trends, the main causal relationships, the aspects still unknown, …).

In the last years, the topics of the simulations were: a) water access and poverty in the Niger river basin; b) poverty and inequality in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; c) poverty and inequality in Latin America; d) inequality and climate change; e) inequality "within" and "between" during the last one hundred years.

Students are not allowed to reject the presentation grade.  However they're allowed to reject (but only once) the final grade; in this case, students must re-write the technical covering report. 

For the not-attending students the exam will be oral (on MS TEAMS) and it will cover all the arguments of the course.

Teaching tools

MS TEAMS  

Office hours

See the website of Giorgio Giovanni Negroni