Programme

The course focuses on uneven growth mechanisms and between-countries inequality; drivers of within-countries inequality; political institutions and distributive conflict; definitions and measures of inequality in outcomes (e.g., income and wage); labour income inequality; inequality between social groups (by race and gender); comparative analysis of welfare systems and labour market institutions. Policy evaluation methods of welfare and labour market policies are also considered. Lessons include comparisons of theories and evidence on developed and developing countries.
Lessons:
1.Institutions, inequality and development : Methodological introduction
2.Uneven growth: stylized facts and questions: Cross-country income differences
3. Economic institutions, growth and poverty traps
4. Distributional justice and inequality
a. Income inequality
b. Inequality of opportunity
c.Social mobility and intergenerational inequality
5. Inequality: definitions and measures
6. Inequality and redistribution: economic and political drivers
7. Inequality and labour market
a. Wage inequality: theory and evidence
b. Race and gender in the labour market
c. Discrimination: theory and evidence
8. Inequality in Italy
a. Income inequality
b. Wealth inequality
c. Wage inequality

Core Documentation

1.D Acemoglu (2009) Introduction to modern economic growth, Princeton University Press, capitoli 1-4.
2.C. Jones (2016) The facts of economic growth, in Handbook of Macroeconomics, eds J. Taylor, H. Uhlig, vol.2A, cap.1.
3. D Acemoglu, S Johnson, JA Robinson (2005) Institutions as a fundamental cause of long-run growth, in Handbook of Economic Growth, eds P Aghion, P Durlauf, cap.6.
3. Slides of the lessons

Type of delivery of the course

lessons, seminars

Type of evaluation

Write and discuss a short essay on a topic of the programme.