2018/2019

2018/2019

DM270

SECS-P/02 (POLITICA ECONOMICA)

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

PERCORSO COMUNE

1°

1st semester (01/10/2018 - 14/12/2018)

12

80 lesson hours

Italian

ORAL TEST

CHIAPPERO ENRICA (titolare) - 6 ECTS
SCERVINI FRANCESCO - 6 ECTS

Students should be familiar with basic statistics concepts. Specific readings will be suggested to students unfamiliar with statistics.

Two crash courses will be offered to all students, whose attendance is strongly suggested.

Statistics crash course:
Five additional classes will be held during the first week of classes (Oct, 1-5) aimed at providing all the students with basic statistical tools, not only targeted to this course, but also to Quantitative Methods for Economic Analysis (second term).

Descriptive statistics (4 ore)
- Univariate and bivariate descriptive analysis for both qualitative and quantitative variables
- Bivariate analysis of dependence (chi-squared) and correlation (coefficient of linear correlation)

Probability theory (2 ore)
- Introduction to probability and probability distribution functions (Normal and t-student)

Inference (4 ore)
- Introduction to the estimation theory and confidence intervals
- Hypothesis tests

STATA crash course:
A short introductory course to the software Stata will be held at the beginning of the course

What are the dimensions of inequality and poverty on a global scale? And what relationships do these phenomena have with growth and development of a country or region? How do we measure poverty and inequality? What are the factors that determine or affect inequalities and poverty and what kind of actions can be put in place to contrast them?
These are the themes we will address in this course, discussing conceptual and theoretical aspects, analyzing measurement problems, critically examining statistical and empirical evidence on these phenomena, studying and making use of statistical and econometric analysis tools.

Theories:

Global Trends and Global Strategies
1. Inequality, Globalization and Economic Growth
2. The growth-poverty-inequality nexus
3. Global Inequalities
4. Global Poverty
5. Economic Growth and Human Development
6. 2030 Agenda and SDGs
7. The World Bank's twin goals: eliminate extreme poverty and share prosperity

Measuring poverty and inequality
1. Some preliminary issues: indicators, unit of analysis, etc
2. Concepts and measures of poverty: absolute-relative, one-multidimensional, objective-subjective, poverty indexes and their characteristics
3. Inequalities and measures of inequality: absolute-relative, one-multidimensional, inequality indexes and their characteristics

Methods
1. Introduction to Econometrics and basic concepts
2. Preliminary notions
3. The univariate regression model
4. Multivariate regression model
5. Confidence intervals and hypothesis tests
6. Selection of regressors and residual analysis
7. Qualitative information: categorical and binary variables

Empirical analysis: themes and problems
1. Poverty and inequality in developing countries
2. Poverty, inequality and growth
3. Inequality and Education
4. Inequality and Health
5. Inequality and Democracy

The course is ideally structured in two integrated parts aimed respectively to examine theories and methods. In the first part of the course, students will learn concepts and theories related to economic development and human development, inequality, poverty and their relationships. Meanwhile, the basic concepts of econometrics will be introduced and applied in the laboratory using the econometric software STATA.
In the second part of the course, several empirical works carried out in this field of study will be critically analysed and discussed, in light of the concepts and methods learned in the first part, and some econometric analysis on micro data and aggregated data will be done.

Given the content of the teaching and the nature of the SERI study course, almost all teaching materials are in English. The interactive teaching platform KIRO http://elearning2.unipv.it/scipol/ will make available all the teaching materials used during the lessons (powerpoint presentations, compulsory and supplementary readings, useful links, etc.). You can access to KIRO by means of username and password. In case of any difficulties, please contact the Technical support (tecnici.dsps@unipv.it).

Theories:
Given the contents and nature of this course, there is not a single textbook: rather, scientific articles and international reports will be used and made available on the KIRO platform. Hereafter is a list of readings that will be used during the class (those marked with * are compulsory for non-attending students):

Measures
- Baldini M., Toso S., Diseguaglianza, povertà e politiche pubbliche, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009, cap.I, II e III. (*)
- Cobham, Schlogl, Sumner (2015), Inequality and the tails: the Palma proposition and Ratio revisited, Department of Economic Social Affairs, WP 143.
- Ravaillon M. (2014), Income inequality in the developing world, Science, 344, 851.
Theories
- Basu (2013), Shared Prosperity and the Mitigation of Poverty. In Practice and in Precept, World Bank Policy Research WP n. 6700 (*)
- Bourguignon F. (2004), The poverty-growth-Inequality Triangle, World Bank. (*)
- Narayan A., et al (2013), Shared prosperity. Links to growth, inequality and inequality of opportunity, Policy Research Working Paper n. 6649, World Bank.
- Ravaillon M. (2017), Inequality and Globalization: A Review Essay, Journal of Economic Literature, forthcoming (*)
- Robeyns I. (2005), The capability approach: a theoretical survey, in Journal of Human Development, 6,1. 114 (*)
- Rosenblatt D. and McGavack T. (2013), A note on the simple algebra of the shared prosperity indicators, World Bank Policy Research WP n. 6645
- Sen A. (2003), Development as capability expansion, in S.Fukuda-Parr et al, Readings in Human Development, Oxford University Press (*)
Global development goals
- United Nation (2017), The Sustainable Development Goals Report (*)
- World Bank, (2014), Prosperity for all. Ending extreme poverty, A note of the WBG, Spring Meeting (*)
- World Bank (2016), Taking on inequality. Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2016 (ch. 2,3,5,6)
Trend
- Alvaredo F., Gasparini L. (2015), Recent Trends in Inequality and Poverty in Developing Countries, chapter 10 of the Handbook of Income Distribution, volume 2, edited by A. Atkinson and F. Bourguignon (*)
- Lakner C. and Milanovic B. (2015), Global Income Distribution: From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to the Great Recession, The World Bank Economic Review, pp. 1-30
- Wade R.H. (2016), Great Escapes and Great Divergences: Growth, Poverty and Income Inequality on a Global Scale, in The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Poverty Edited by D. Brady and L. M. Burton
- Beegle K. et al (2016), Poverty in a rising Africa. Africa Poverty Report, World Bank Group
- Calvo-Gonzalez O. et al (2017), How is the slowdown affecting households in Latin America and the Carribean, World Bank Policy Research WP n. 7548

Methods:
The lecturer's teaching material is sufficient for the preparation of the exam, provided that students actively and regularly attend to the lessons.
A reference text is "Wooldridge J.M., Introductory Econometrics. A Modern Approach, 5th edition, Cengage, 2012 ", but any other basic Econometrics textbook can be used. However, students are not required to purchase any text before the course begins.
The STATA software is available in the computer lab (Aula 7 and Aula Capelo); the teacher along the course will provide several databases or make them available online together with any other relevant documentation used in the lab and needed for the exam.
Guidance on any further readings and textbooks for students who will not be regularly attending the lectures, or who wish to deepen some aspects, will be suggested and uploaded, if available in electronic format, on the KIRO platform.

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