87167 - International Development Economics

Learning outcomes

This is a course is an applied course on international development economics, organised around a few selected topics. The aim of the course is to offer the theoretical and analytical tools is to understand the different interpretations of social and economic development - in its evolving features - both at the country and at the international level. With the objective of providing the basic context for correctly framing the Sustainable Development Goals, the course focuses on issues such as poverty, hunger, inequality, migration and unbalanced development. The experience of the so-called emerging countries will be one of the privileged points of view. Students will be able to acquire the ability to tackle the problems of economic development and competition in an applied and comparative perspective, with thematic in-depth applications.

Course contents

This is an advanced and critical course on issues of international development in light of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The course will be taught in English.

The course covers the following areas from articles and recent studies, by analyzing and comparing different positions:

A. The age of inequality. Inequality and sustainable development.

A1. Kuznetz's curve and Kuznets cycles.

A2. Recent trends in income inequality (within and across countries). The two sides of a debate.

A3. The most important recent contributions (e.g. Piketty, Milanovic).

B. The age of hunger and poverty. How to sustain development

B1. Hunger is still an issue: how do address hunger and famine.

B2. A world free of poverty? Recent trends

B3. The new "geography of poverty"

C. The age of climate change

C1. Climate change inqualities

C2. The economics of climate change

C3. Climate change and international development

Readings/Bibliography

There are no mandatory text-books for this course.

All articles, references and links will be available on the course web-page.

Teaching methods

Lectures in class (in English) with lecture notes and slides available for the students (on the course web-page)

Assessment methods

A written exam (in English) with open essay-questions of the course main topics (60% of the final grade).

One short essay (in English) on any topic related to the course (40% of the final grade)

Teaching tools

Video projector and a internet-connected computer.

Office hours

See the website of Pier Giorgio Ardeni