BSc Global Development / Course details

What is poverty? What is inequality? Why are certain societies more unequal than others? And does it matter for global development? This course unit will try to address these questions by examining different approaches to conceptualising, measuring and explaining income poverty and inequality, and their relationship to other dimensions of development. Whenever possible, we will look at the debate in historical perspective.

This course unit sims to introduce students to the analysis of income inequality and poverty: how they are conceptualised, measured, and why they matter in the development context.

Indicative topics:

• Inequality and Poverty: introduction
  • Concepts, origins and evolution of this area
• Measuring inequality and poverty:
  • Theory
  • Applications
• Why do we see poverty and inequality?
• Do poorer, more unequal societies have worse development outcomes?

• There will be ten 2-hour lectures plus tutorials.
• All teaching activities are in class, face to face.

• Understanding cutting-edge economic theory and empirical evidence, and apply it to policy issues concerning the analysis of poverty and inequality.

• Present and defend an advanced economic argument in a clear and succinct manner.
• Achieve or maintain high standards of grammar and logical thinking.

• Be able to critically interpret and debate current issues.
• Develop a professional economist’s understanding of key controversies.

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a wide variety of statistical sources and policy issues concerning the analysis of poverty and inequality.

Feedback will be delivered via in-class interactions and written comments via Blackboard for assessed coursework. 

A.B. Atkinson, Inequality: What Can Be Done? (2015), Harvard University Press

A.B. Atkinson, Measuring Poverty Around the World (2019),  Princeton University Press

Martin Ravallion, The Economics of Poverty (2016), Oxford University Press

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

Thomas Piketty, The Economics of Inequality (2015), Harvard University Press

Milanovic B., Visions of Inequality: From the French Revolution to the End of the Cold War, (2023), Belknap Press