B5068 - CULTURE AND DEVELOPMENT

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

The second part of the course focuses on how markets and societies can achieve coordinated decisions across individuals. We address the role of both individual and social values as determinants of collective choices. We dwelve into the role of 'social capital' for human development. In particular, a rational-choice interpretation of social capital is introduced, whereby expectations and beliefs play a central role for understanding interactions between individuals. The objectives for the second part of the course are: to understand the relation between culture and institutions; to shed light on how values and beliefs affect the rise of institutions; to investigate the role of individualism and collectivism in the determination of 'good' collective policies. By the end of the course, the student can distinguish between endogenous and exogenous factors in the improvement of human livelihoods; is able to explain why 'bad' policies can result as an outcome of rational collective decisions; understands the conditions for which expectations and beliefs may lead to desirable social outcomes.

Contenuti

The term 'social capital' is often used in different contexts. We can interpret the idea of social capital as that of a form of institution that can be relevant in the process of change of local communities. Since the allocation of economic resources is key for the creation and propagation of the sources of change in a production structure, understanding the role of social capital may help us to explain how financial markets can contribute to the 'local development' of a given community. All in all, we shall discuss the idea of social capital in order to stress how difficult it may be to pin down causal relations within the process of economic development.

A 'family' can be interpreted as a form of organization of social and - therefore - economic relationships. But the formation of a family - and the emergence of the social organization that follows from it - is linked to the formal and informal institutions that characterize a country or a community. The way in which different members of a family allocate their time to explicitly-remunerated work in the labor market and to implicitly-remunerated work within the family itself tells us how family income is formed. But this means that family ties can be important in understanding how a country's labor market works. This perspective will allow us to link together the different topics covered during the course. It will also enable us to apply different perspectives of theoretical analysis to the study of empirical phenomena observed in the real world.

It should be pointed out that a clear distinction will be introduced between economic theories (about the unobservable determinants of economic phenomena) and the perspective of empirical analysis (related to what we can observe from the data and past history). The final aim will be to encourage students to identify alternative theoretical hypotheses, and to test different 'theses' on historical data.

Testi/Bibliografia

All the topics discussed during the lectures are presented in a number of scientific papers that have contributed to a growing research and study agenda.

The study material for both the students who decide to attend the course, and for those who choose not to attend the lectures is made available in clearly-marked sections of the Virtuale platform before the beginning of the course. All the materials can **also** be retrieved and downloaded from the Internet.

After the course has started, the professor will provide the students with a set of slides for each lecture. These will be upgraded as the class discussion takes place, based also on feedback from the class-attending students. They will be uploaded on Virtuale and will be available also to the students who do not follow the lectures.

The papers in the following list provide the building blocks for the study literature, regardless of class attendance.

Partha Dasgupta, The economics of social capital, Economic Record, Vol. 81, No. S1, pp. S2-S21, August 2005

Yann Algan, "Trust and Social Capital," Post-Print hal-03391911, HAL, 2018, downloadable from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-03391911.html

Wouter Poortinga, “Social relations or social capital? Individual and community health effects of bonding social capital”, Social Science & Medicine, Vol. 63(1), pp. 255-70, 2006

Craig D. Parks, Jeff Joireman, Paul A. M. Van Lange, Cooperation, Trust, and Antagonism How Public Goods Are Promoted, Psychological Science in the Public Interest ,14(3):119-165, 2013

Yann Algan and Pierre Cahuc, Trust, Growth and Well-being: New Evidence and Policy Implications, IZA DP No. 7464

 

Metodi didattici

The course will consist in a set of three-hour lectures.

The classes will provide the opportunity both to facilitate the interaction between the professor and the students, and to stimulate the debate among students themselves. In this sense, class attendance is critical to take full advantage from an in-depth discussion on the course topics.

Students are free to decide whether to attend the lectures, or not: there is no mandatory attendance for the course. Please notice that:

a. the required study literature for attending and non-attending students is different

b. the assessment of both attending and non-attending students will take the same form as detailed below.

Students with a disability or specific learning disabilities (DSA) who are requesting academic adjustments or compensatory tools are invited to communicate their needs to the teaching staff in order to properly address them and agree on the appropriate measures with the competent bodies.

All the students should keep in mind that the use of generative artificial intelligence is considered a form of plagiarism.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

ALL the students (regardless of class attendance) will take a three-hour written exam with questions based on the material covered in the mandatory study materials.

The written exams will take place during the standard assessment sessions scheduled by the professor throughout the academic year.

Grading criteria

The answers provided by the students in the written exam will be assessed based on the following.

The ability of the student to achieve a coherent and comprehensive understanding of the topics addressed, to critically assess them and to use an appropriate language will be evaluated with the highest grades (A = 27-30 con lode).

A predominantly mnemonic acquisition of the study materials, coupled with evidence of gaps and deficiencies in terms of language, critical and/or logical skills will result in grades ranging from good (B = 24-26) to satisfactory (C = 21-23).

A low level of knowledge of the study materials together with gaps and deficiencies in terms of language, critical and/or logical skills will lead a student to ‘barely pass' the exam (D = 18-20) or to a fail grade (E).

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

The students who attend the course will be provided with a 'paper pack' including all the scientific articles, and set of slides for each lecture topic.

These materials will be made available on the Virtuale page for the course.

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Paolo Zagaglia