Course 2017-2018 a.y.

30195 - ECONOMICS (POVERTY, INEQUALITY AND INCOME DISTRIBUTION)


CLEAM - CLEF - CLEACC - BESS-CLES - WBB - BIEF - BIEM - BIG

Department of Social and Political Sciences

Course taught in English

Go to class group/s: 31
CLEAM (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/01) - CLEF (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/01) - CLEACC (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/01) - BESS-CLES (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/01) - WBB (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/01) - BIEF (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/01) - BIEM (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/01) - BIG (6 credits - I sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/01)
Course Director:
MASSIMO ANELLI

Classes: 31 (I sem.)
Instructors:
Class 31: MASSIMO ANELLI



Course Objectives

The course addresses the main approaches to the measurement of inequality and poverty, their main trends at the global level, and their fundamental determinants. For each topic we will discuss the relevant theoretical framework, the main measurement issues, and the available empirical evidence. This course is particularly targeted to economics students who plan to enroll in a Master or Ph.D. program, but students from all degrees and backgrounds are very welcome to attend.

Course Content Summary

Why attending this course?
  • Inequality, the financial crisis, and the great recession.
  • Global trends in inequality and poverty.
Measurement: the need for criteria
  • Introduction to the measurement of inequality and poverty.
  • The transfer principle and other criteria for evaluating inequality measures.
  • Income distribution functions: Pareto, Normal and Log-normal.
  • Partial ordering methods: stochastic dominance and the Lorenz Curve.
  • Complete ordering methods: the Gini index.
  • Measuring inequality using STATA.
Trends in income shares
  • The top 1%: capital in the XXI century.
  • The remaining 99%: skills, education, job polarization and the rise of earnings inequality.
  • Migrations and inequality.
Intergenerational inequality: where is the Land of Opportunity?
  • The Great Gatsby curve.
  • Measurement intergenerational income elasticity, rank-rank regressions.
  • The generation gap.
Optimal taxation
  • The earned income tax credit and food stamps.
Measurement: poverty measures
  • Foreign aid and randomized controlled trials.

Detailed Description of Assessment Methods

Two options available for the assessment, based on student’s preference
  • Written exam (two partial exams or one general exam) worth 100% of final score.
  • Written exam worth 70% of final score (two partial exams worth 35% each or one general exam worth 70%) plus an in-class group presentation of a given research paper worth 30% of final score.

Textbooks

  • A course pack and a series of articles are distributed in the classroom.
Exam textbooks & Online Articles (check availability at the Library)

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of microeconomics, macroeconomic, mathematics and statistics.
Last change 11/05/2017 09:25