ECI5590 Poverty, inequality and opportunity
Faculty of Business and Economics
ECI5590 Poverty, inequality and opportunity is a level 5, 6-credit-point, postgraduate unit from the Faculty of Business and Economics. It isn't offered in 2021. It has no prerequisites.
- Credit points
- 6
- Offered in 2021
- Not offered
- Assessment
- Exam 50%
- and 1 other task
- Workload
- 144 hours
- per semester
This is the 2021 handbook entry. See the 2027 entry.
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Requisites
Before ECI5590
Prohibitions
You can't enrol if you have passed any of these.
After ECI5590
No unit lists ECI5590 as a prerequisite in the 2021 handbook.
Enrolment rules
You must be enrolled in course B6027 to undertake this unit.
Equivalent units
The same content under another code. Only one of them counts.
Overview
Ending poverty is justifiably an overarching aim of all development efforts, and it is enshrined as the first of the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations. Likewise, tackling inequality in opportunities and outcomes has been at the forefront of a wide range of public policy debates.
The unit will introduce you to the economics of poverty, inequality and opportunity by organising the unit material in three main parts.
Part one will review key conceptual and methodological issues in the measurement and monitoring of poverty, inequality and opportunity, including a brief review of global evidence and ongoing debates, highlighting the diversity and the complexities of this evidence. It will also introduce common methods of “macro” and “micro” level analysis of distributional issues.
Part two will discuss the key driving forces for poverty and inequality. These include poverty traps, the role of the labour market and other factor markets, inequality and deprivation in education and health, inequality of opportunity, and intergenerational inequality and mobility.
Part three will focus on the policy space. You will explore economy-wide issues related to the pace and pattern of economic growth, pro-poor growth, sectoral policies, especially for education and health, targeted and untargeted transfer and safety net programs, and the evidence on what works in diverse contexts.
Offerings in 2021
The 2021 handbook lists no offerings for ECI5590.
Assessment
- Within semester assessment50%
- Examination50%
Learning outcomes
When you finish this unit, you should be able to:
- 1
understand key concepts, including an appreciation of ongoing debates, about the measurement and monitoring of poverty and inequality, including inequality of opportunity
- 2
become familiar with the global evidence on poverty and inequality
- 3
understand the main tools of distributional analysis at “macro” and “micro” levels
- 4
gain an understanding of policies to combat poverty and inequality including economy-wide policies promoting pro-poor growth, sectoral policies especially in relation to education and health, and targeted policies such as cash and in-kind transfers, public employment programs.
Workload and teaching
Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Independent study may include associated readings, assessment and preparation for scheduled activities. The unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.
Contacts
- Chief Examiners
- Professor Edward Buckingham
Common questions
What are the prerequisites for ECI5590?
ECI5590 has no prerequisites, but enrolment rules apply.
When is ECI5590 offered?
ECI5590 has no offerings listed in the 2021 handbook.
How much work is ECI5590?
The handbook expects about 144 hours of study across the semester. No students have rated its difficulty yet.
Does ECI5590 have an exam?
Yes. The exam is worth 50% of the final mark, alongside 1 other task.