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040138 KU Field Experiments: Fighting Poverty (2021W)

8.00 ECTS (4.00 SWS), SPL 4 - Wirtschaftswissenschaften

Continuous assessment of course work

REMOTE

Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Registration is open from Mo 13.09.2021 09:00 to Th 23.09.2021 12:00
Registration is open from Mo 27.09.2021 09:00 to We 29.09.2021 12:00
Deregistration possible until Fr 15.10.2021 23:59

Details

max. 50 participants

Language: English

Lecturers

Victor González-Jimenez

Classes

Please note that the lectures will be given online and asynchronous. The above dates just indicate that two lectures are uploaded each Thursday.

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

This course explores the most important issues of poverty using experimental tools such as randomized control trials. The following questions are answered through lectures, readings, and discussions:

-What is poverty?
-How is poverty measured?
-Why poverty persists?
-Can the poor afford a minimum caloric intake?
-Is the health system helping the poor?
-How do we make schools work for poor citizens?
-How do the poor save and invest?
-Why are poor families often numerous?
-Is micro-finance useful to eradicate poverty?
-Why do the poor make seemingly suboptimal decisions?

Assessment and permitted materials

-Assignments (30%)
-Midterm (30%)
-Final exam (40%)

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Basic microeconomics
Basic econometrics

Examination topics

Module 1:
-Definition of poverty
-Measurement of poverty
-A general theory of poverty traps
-The methodology of randomized control trials
-Critiques to randomized control trials

Module 2:
-Nutrition-based poverty traps
-The role of human capital in persistent poverty
-The household model of the poor
-Credit constraints as a source of poverty traps

Module 3:
-Poverty traps from lack of self-control
-Poverty and aspirations failure
-Cognitive load under poverty
-Self-fulfilling prophecies

Reading list

Ravallion, Martin (2016). Economics of poverty: History, measurement and policy. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190212766.

Banerjee, Abhijit, and Esther Duflo. Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. PublicAffairs, 2011. ISBN: 9781586487980.

Plus selected papers

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Th 07.10.2021 09:48