Checking date: 05/05/2020


Course: 2019/2020

Well-being Measurement, inequality and poverty
(15639)
Master in Economic Development and Growth (Plan: 242 - Estudio: 255)
EPC


Coordinating teacher: DOMENECH FELIU, JORDI

Department assigned to the subject: Social Sciences Department

Type: Electives
ECTS Credits: 3.0 ECTS

Course:
Semester:




Objectives
- Advanced understanding of the academic literature and reports by national and international on issues related to well-being, inequality and poverty in developing economies. - Ability to use and manage large micro-data sets (like the Living Standards Measurement Surveys of the World Bank) related to issues of earnings and consumption of poor households in developing economies. -Ability to identify the main characteristics of the behaviour of poor households in developing economies and apply models of household behaviour to microdata from developing economies. - Ability to construct robust estimators of inequality and poverty in developing economies.
Description of contents: programme
- Meausument of well being, evolution of well-being in the long run - The Economics of poor households in developing economies (earnings, consumption, savings) - Nutrition, health, and well-being - Poverty and the life cycle, old age, childhood - Early life conditions and adult outcomes. - Life cycle impacts of famines - Missing women: gender discrimination within the household in developing economies.
Learning activities and methodology
Acquisition of knowledge through: - Lectures in which teacher develops the fundamental concepts and skills that students should acquire - Discussion of articles, solving exercises and assumptions applied by the teacher, encouraging the active involvement of students in solving them (both individually and in teams). These exercises will be solved during the lectures. Acquisition of skills and abilities by: - Conduct by the student to type a short essay based academic discussion of the literature on a topic of the course. - Class presentation by students of the results of their work and discussing the presentations of other students.
Assessment System
  • % end-of-term-examination 20
  • % of continuous assessment (assigments, laboratory, practicals...) 80

Basic Bibliography
  • Banerjee, A. and E. Duflo. Poor Economics. Public Affairs. 2012
  • Collins, Morduch, Rutherford, Ruthven. Portfolios of the poor: how do the poor live on 2$ a day. Princeton U. Press. 2012
  • Deaton, A.. The Analysis of Household Surveys: A Microeconometric Approach to Development Policy. World Bank. 1997
  • Mullanaithan, S. and E. Shafir. Scarcity: why having so little means so much. Penguin. 2013
Additional Bibliography
  • Dasgupta, P.. An Inquiry into Well-Being and Destitution. Oxford U. Press. 1993
  • Deaton, A.. The Analysis of Household Surveys: A Microeconometric Approach to Development Policy. World Bank. 1997
  • Deaton, A.. The Great Escape. Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality. Princeton U. Press. 2013
  • Milanovic, Branko. Global Inequality. A New Approach for the Age of Globalization. Belknap Press, Harvard. 2016

The course syllabus may change due academic events or other reasons.