Teaching Plan Information

Presentation

This course is designed to provide the required knowledge and skills to perform a descirptive data-driven analysis in the field of inequality.

It is built around the analysis of historical trends and current developments of income distribution, being some its key explanatory factors: economic growth, access to education, taxation systems, conflicts and citizenship. In adittion, trends and measurements of gender and health inequalities will be reviewed.

Students must write an academic essay, where it is expected to descriptively analyze a given inequality -chosen by the student- using official data and applying the concepts introduced in classes. In addition, they must pass a short open-answer exam.

Learning outcomes

• Gain a solid understanding of historical inequality contexts and its current trends.
• Acquire the techniques for descriptive statistics (manipulation, visualization and interpretation) and for distribution analysis.
• Develop a profound ability to evaluate (critically and empirically) the distribution of access and status within and between different countries.

Sustainable Development Goals

(1) No poverty

(2) Zero Hunger             

(3) Good Health and Well-being            

(5) Gender Equality     

(6) Clean Water and Sanitation              

(7) Affordable, clean energy    

(8) Decent work and economic growth             

(10) Reduced inequalities         

(16) Peace, justice and strong institutions

Prerequisites

1. STATA Software basic user
2. Knowledge of descriptive statistics (Introductive course of data analysis)

Contents

1. Measuring Inequality

2. Income inequality of last 30 years

3. Inequalities within countries

4. Measuring gender inequalities

5. Measuring health inequalities

6. Income inequality between countries

Teaching Methods

The courses activities are:

10 lectures

3 seminars the first part will be dedicated to the presentations of a peer-reviewed paper that analyses quantitatively a given inequality. In addition practical sessions to solve doubts regarding the computer software and guidance for the final project will be offered.

Autonomous work: reading of research papers, prepare paper presentation for the seminar, write the academic essay, as well as studiyng for the final exam.

Evaluation

Others:

1) Final project

Depending on the size of the class, invidually or between a team of two people, will have to write an academic essay analyzing the chosen inequality topic. For the project a data-driven analysis and the application of the concepts introduced in classes are expected. The academic essay and the presentation have to be submitted during the 8th week of class.

2) Exam

Students who fail to obtain a final grade of 5,0 or above in the exam, have the right to re-take the final exam only if they meet the two following conditions: having presented and submitted the written essay as well as the presentation and  having taken the first try of exam.

Bibliography and information resources

Suggested Readings

Alvaredo, F. et al. (2018): World Inequality Report 2018, World Inequality Lab and Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Atkinson, A.B. and Piketty, T. (2010): Top Incomes over the Twentieth Century: A Global Perspective, Vol. 2, Oxford University Press.

Deaton, A. (2015): The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality, Princeton University Press.

Milanovic, B. (2016): Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization, Harvard University Press.

OECD (2015): In It Together: Why Less Inequality Benefits All, OECD Publishing, Paris.

Scheidel Walter (2018): The Great Leveler, Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century, Princeton University Press.

Data Sources

EIRO: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/

EUROSTAT: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/statistics/themes

Human Development Data (UNDP)

ILO: http://laborsta.ilo.org/

OECD stats: http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx

World Bank open data: https://data.worldbank.org/

World Inequality Database: https://wid.world/data/

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