2012-2013 Academic Catalog

May 11, 2024

2012-2013 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

IDCE 30105 - Inequality and Poverty: Measurement, Determinants, Consequences, and Responses

Social scientists (particularly economists and sociologists) have long been concerned with the distribution of assets within a society. There are many motivations for this concern including fairness, legitimacy, and “social welfare” or happiness. Often, the measurement of inequality focused on income inequality. Even within this one indicator of inequality, there is considerable debate on how to measure income inequality. And, even while income inequality may have multiple dimensions, policy analysts, advocates, and citizens may be concerned with other aspects of inequality that pose their own measurement issues, such as the distinction between poverty and inequality or inequality in access to opportunity. Thus, one goal of this course is to become familiar with the contours of this debate and be able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of various measures of inequality and their potential usefulness in various policy and program settings. Furthermore, there is significant scholarly and policy debate around the cause of inequality. Does our current distribution in assets reflect the distribution in access to education? To deindustrialization? To wage and compensation policies? To family formation policies? To discrimination? To social and political institutions? To corruption? Thus, a second goal of this course will be to identify and understand the main debates around what contributes to our existing pattern of inequality and to consider the evidence for each. There is a great deal of literature on the impact of inequality on individuals, families, and communities including health outcomes, educational attainment, access to opportunity, and residential spatial patterns. These impacts are largely borne by individuals. In addition, we will consider some of the negative externalities borne by society as a whole, including the possible erosion of political legitimacy, and threats to public health. Thus, understanding these consequences will be a third goal of the course. Finally, we will explore some of the policy and programmatic responses to inequality. These largely fall into three categories: asset building programs (e.g., EITC, IDAs, financial literacy); organizing and advocacy (e.g., living wage campaigns and unionization); and economic (e.g., the triple bottom line, B-corporations, cooperatives).