Course Overview (Syllabus)

This course surveys some recent literature in applied economic theory dealing with inequality. The emphasis is two-fold: (1) positive theories explaining the phenomenon of persistent disparity between individuals and/or social groups in the distribution of claims on resources. (2) normative theories defining and evaluating the welfare significance of various inequality measures and/or the welfare effects of various equality-promoting interventions. Topics include racial stereotypes, geographic segregation, theories of distributive justice, modeling the incentive effects of preferential policies, dysfuncitonal identity, and sources of inequality that are embedded in the structure of production and/or exchange. The course is part of the field sequence in xxx.

Requirements for Credit

1. Weekly problem sets (70%). Here ‘problem set’ means a take-home exercise asking you to apply, extend or generalize material covered in class.

2. A short research proposal to be submitted by the last class (Tueday, May 3, 2005) (30%). Here ‘proposal’ means to describe an idea that could be expanded into a worthwhile paper, and outline in some detail how that idea would be developed. The proposal should be inspired in some way by a topic or question covered in the reading and/or the lectures of this course.