Unit DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
- Course
- International relations
- Study-unit Code
- A006352
- Location
- PERUGIA
- Curriculum
- Cooperazione internazionale e governance globale
- Teacher
- Lucia Mangiavacchi
- Teachers
-
- Lucia Mangiavacchi
- Hours
- 52 ore - Lucia Mangiavacchi
- CFU
- 8
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2026
- Offered
- 2026/27
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Formazione economico-statistica
- Sector
- ECON-01/A
- Type of study-unit
- Obbligatorio (Required)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- English.
- Contents
- The course deals with the issue of economic well-being and its distribution within countries and between countries at a global level. The course provides the tools to analyze economic welfare from an empirical point of view through the use of individual data. The course also devotes space to the analysis of poverty with particular attention to child and female poverty. The second part will be dedicated to the study of public policies aimed at reducing poverty and inequalities and to the methods of evaluating these policies. The last part will be dedicated to the role of human capital, and in particular of public investment in education as a key variable for the reduction of inequalities in the distribution of well-being and for the fight against poverty.
- Reference texts
- Reading list of articles and book chapters available on the Unistudium learning platform.
- Educational objectives
- (i) Conceptualization of the idea of economic well-being and its possible measurement. (ii) Knowledge of data and methods for measuring economic well-being, poverty and inequality. (iii) Knowledge of welfare state regimes and policies aimed at reducing inequalities and encouraging social mobility. (iv) Provide the tools necessary for understanding and critical analysis of academic articles and institutional reports on development, poverty and inequalities. (v) Ability to conduct analyses of well-being, poverty and inequality starting from survey data. (vi) Knowledge of the role of human capital as a variable of socially sustainable economic development.
- Prerequisites
- Basic knowledge of microeconomics, mathematics and statistics.
- Teaching methods
- The topics will be developed mainly with lectures. There will also be lessons organized as "flipped classroom": in this case the students will have to read some academic papers and discuss them in class. The students will also work together with the teacher on a short research paper on the topics addressed during the course.
- Other information
- Attendance is strongly recommended; those who do not attend should contact the teacher for further details on the assessment of learning. Check the Unistudium page for more details where the teacher publishes all the information and updated material.
- Learning verification modality
- Delivery of a paper on a topic chosen from the contents of the course to be agreed with the teacher (2/3 of the final grade). Presentation of an article among those proposed in the reading list (1/3 of the final grade).
Non-attending students are required to contact the instructor by e-mail before the start of the course to receive specific guidance on the syllabus and the assessment requirements. - Extended program
- 1. Economic well-being and development: (i) conceptual framework, (ii) measurement and (iii) data.
2. Inequalities: (i) inequality in the distribution of income and wealth, (ii) inequality of opportunity, (iii) gender inequality.
3. Poverty: (i) poverty lines, (ii) indices, (iii) multidimensionality.
4. Policies for poverty and inequality reduction.
5. Methods of policy evaluation: experimental and non-experimental methods.
6. Human capital and economic development: (i) returns to education, (ii) human capital and the family, (iii) human capital and inequalities.
7. Migration and development - Obiettivi Agenda 2030 per lo sviluppo sostenibile
- Zero poverty; quality education; gender equality.