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Specific Topics in Applied Economics A

Code: 43792
Credits: 6
2026/2027
Degree programme Type Course
Applied Research in Economics and Business OP 0

Contact lecturer

Name :
Maria Cervini
Email :
maria.cervini@uab.cat

Teaching staff

Perihan Ozge Saygin
Xavier Ramos Morilla
David Castells Quintana

Group languages

You can consult this information at the end of the document.

Prerequisites

None

Objectives

To provide a wider understanding in advanced techniques and topics for empirical research in economics.

Learning outcomes

  1. Possess and understand knowledge that provides a basis or opportunity for originality in the development and/or application of ideas, often in a research context
  2. Student should possess an ability to learn that enables them to continue studying in a manner which is largely self-supervised or independent
  3. Understand the mathematical, statistical and econometric fundaments and instruments required for statistical inference.
  4. Work in international and inter-disciplinary teams.
  5. Produce and draft projects, technical reports and academic articles in English, making use of the appropriate terminology, argumentation, communication skills and analytical tools for each context, and rigorously evaluate those produced by third parties.
  6. Analyse, synthesise and critically evaluate a certain matter of scientific interest and/or real problem case, considering its different perspectives and supporting the results and conclusions obtained.
  7. Recognise and distinguish the theoretical and empirical knowledge associated to questions of efficiency and equity in economics, and how they can contribute to the economic development of societies.
  8. Resolve global socio-economic problems and challenges in a context of the increasing integration of the global economy by applying economic analysis.
  9. Recognise and discern theoretical and empirical knowledge related to the economic analysis of environmental issues, including the economic policies dealing with them.
  10. Recognise and discern theoretical and empirical knowledge related to the measurement of poverty and inequality in income and wealth distribution, including redistributive policies.

Contents

SYLLABUS


Gender Economics


  1. The gender gap in labor market outcomes: cross-country trends
  2. Traditional explanations: human capital and discrimination
  3. Psychological traits and non-cognitive skills
  4. Social norms and children
  5. The role of public policies



Development Economics


  1. What are the main challenges for development today? What is development and how do we measure it?
  2. Why are some countries rich and others poor? Why is poverty so persistent?
  3. How does the development process take place?
  4. Is urbanization positive?
  5. Frontier topics in development economics



Economics of Inequality


  1. Measuring economic inequality
  2. Measuring economic poverty
  3. Intergenerational mobility and equality of opportunity
  4. Redistributive effects and the progressivity of taxes and transfers
  5. Preferences for redistribution







Learning activities and methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Type: Autonomous
Autonomous 82.8 3.312 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Type: Guided
Directed 37.5 1.5 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Type: Supervised
Supervised 22.5 0.9 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Classes, essay writing, tutorials, study and research activities.

The proposed teaching methodology may undergo some modifications according to the restrictions imposed by the health authorities on on-campus courses.

Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Assessment

Continuous assessment activities

Title Weight Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Discussion of Presentations of Gender Economics 33% 2 0.08 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Exam Development Economics 17% 1.3 0.052 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Exam Economics of Inequality 23% 1.6 0.064 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10
Presentation of readings Economics of Inequality 10% 1 0.04 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10
Presentations Development Economics 17% 1.3 0.052 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10

Class attendance, presentation and discussion of essays and problems, presentation and discussion of readings, exams.

 

Calendar of evaluation activities

The dates of the evaluation activities of the module (final exams, exercises in the classroom, assignments,...) will be announced well in advance during the semester.

\"The dates of evaluation activities cannot be modified, unless there is an exceptional and duly justified reason why an evaluation activity cannot be carried out. In this case, the degree coordinator will contact both the teaching staff and the affected student, and a new date will be scheduled within the same academic period to make up for the missed evaluation activity.\" Section 1 of Article 264. Calendar of evaluation activities (Academic Regulations UAB). Students of the Faculty of Economics and Business, who in accordance with the previous paragraph need to change an evaluation activity (mainly final exam/s) date must process the request by filling out an Application for exams' reschedule form.

Grade revision process

After all grading activities of the module have ended, students will be informed of the date and way in which the module grades will be published. Students will be also be informed of the procedure, place, date and time of grade revision following University regulations.

Retake Process

\"To be eligible to participate in the retake process of the module, it is required for students to have been previously evaluated for at least two thirds of the total evaluation activities of the module.\" Section 2 of Article 261. The recovery (UAB Academic Regulations). Additionally, it is required that the student to have achieved an averagegrade of the module of at least 3.5.

The date of the retake exam will be duly announced by the coordination of the program. Students who take this exam and pass, will get a grade of 5 for the module. If the student does not pass the retake, the grade will remain unchanged, and hence, student will fail the module.

Irregularities in evaluation activities

In spite of other disciplinary measures deemed appropriate, and in accordance with current academic regulations, \"in the case that the student makes any irregularity that could lead to a significant variation in the grade of an evaluation activity, it must be graded with a 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that can be instructed. In case of various irregularities occur in the evaluation of the same module, the final grade of this module is 0\" Section 11 of Article 266. Results of the evaluation. (UAB Academic Regulations).

Not Assessed Grade 

A student can obtain \"Not Assessed\" grade in the module only when he/she has not participated in any of the evaluation activities within it. Therefore, students who perform even only one evaluation component cannot obtain \"Not Assessed\" grade in the module.

Comprehensive evaluation

This module does not offer the option for comprehensive evaluation.

 

Bibliography

Gender Economics

  • Altonji, J. G., & Blank, R. M. (1999). Race and gender in the labor market. In O. C. Ashenfelter & D. Card (Eds.), Handbook of Labor Economics (Vol. 3). Elsevier.
  • Azmat, G., & Petrongolo, B. (2014). Gender and the labor market: What have we learned from field and lab experiments? Labour Economics, 30, 32–40.
  • Betrand, M., & Duflo, E. (2016). Field experiments on discrimination. Prepared for the Handbook of Field Experiments.
  • Bertrand, M. (2010). New perspectives on gender. In O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (Eds.), Handbook of Labor Economics (Vol. 4B, pp. 1545–1592).
  • Bertrand, M., Kamenica, E., & Pan, J. (2015). Gender identity and relative income within households. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130(2), 571–614.
  • Bertrand, M., & Pan, J. (2013). The trouble with boys: Social influences and the gender gap in disruptivebehavior. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 5(1), 32–64.
  • Bhalotra, S., Clots, I., & Iyer, L. (Forthcoming). Path-breakers: How does women's political participation respond to electoral success? The Economic Journal.
  • Blau, F., & Kahn, L. (2017). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. Journal of Economic Literature, 55(3), 789–865.
  • Cobb-Clark, D. A. (Forthcoming). Biology and gender in the labor market. Oxford Handbook on the Economics of Women. IZA DP No. 10386.
  • Gneezy, U., Niederle, M., & Rustichini, A. (2003). Performance in competitive environments: Gender differences. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118, 1049–1074.
  • Goldin, C. (2006). The quiet revolution that transformed women's employment, education and family. American Economic Review, 96(2), 1–21.
  • Goldin, C. (2014). A grand gender convergence: Its last chapter. American Economic Review, 104(4), 1091–1119.
  • Goldin, C., & Mitchell, J. (2017). The new life cycle of women's employment: Disappearing humps, sagging middles, expanding tops. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(1), 161–182.
  • Iriberri, N., & Rey-Biel, P. (2017). Stereotypes are only a threat when beliefs are reinforced: On the sensitivity of gender differences in performance under competition to information provision. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 135, 99–111.
  • Juhn, C., & McCue, K. (2017). Specialization then and now: Marriage, children, and the gender earnings gap across cohorts. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(1), 183–204.
  • Ngai, R., & Petrongolo, B. (Forthcoming). Gender gaps and the rise of the service economy. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics.
  • Niederle, M. (2016). Gender. In J. Kagel & A. E. Roth (Eds.), Handbook of Experimental Economics (2nd ed., pp. 481–553). Princeton University Press.
  • Olivetti, C., & Petrongolo, B. (2008). Unequal pay or unequal employment? A cross-country analysis of gender gaps. Journal of Labor Economics, 26, 621–654.
  • Olivetti, C., & Petrongolo, B. (2014). Gender gaps across countries and skills: Supply, demand and the industry structure. Review of Economic Dynamics, 17, 842–859.
  • Olivetti, C., & Petrongolo, B. (2016). The evolution of the gender gap in industrialized countries. Annual Review of Economics, 8, 405–434.
  • Olivetti, C., & Petrongolo, B. (2017). The economic consequences of family policies: Lessons from a century of legislation in high-income countries. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(1), 205–230.



Development Economics

- Cypher & Dietz, J. 2020. The Process of Economic Development. Routledge

- Janvry de A. Sadoulet, E. 2017. Development Economics. Routledge

- Castells-Quintana, D. 2021. Our Elusive Quest for Prosperity. Ed. UAB

- Acemoglu & Robinson (2001) "The colonial origins of comparative development: An empirical investigation." American Economic Review & "Reversal of fortune: Geography and institutions in the making of the modern world income distribution." The Quarterly Journal of Economics (2002)

- Azariadis & Stachurski (2005): "Poverty Traps", Chapter 5 in P. Aghion and S. N. Durlauf, Editor(s), Handbook of Economic Growth

- Banerjee & Duflo (2007) “The Economic Lives of the Poor”, Journal of Economic Perspectives

- Castells-Quintana & Wenban-Smith (2020), “Population dynamics, urbanization without growth and the rise of megacities”, Jour Dev Studies

- Galor (2005), “From stagnation to growth: Unified growth theory”, Handbook of Economic Growth

- Henderson (2001), “Geography and Development”, Journal of Economic Geography

- Henderson (2010), “Cities and Development”, Journal of Regional Science

- Lewis (1954), “Economic Development with unlimited supplies of labour”

- Nunn, N. (2009), “The importance of history for economic development”

- Pritchet (1997). “Divergence, Big Time”, Journal of Economic Perspectives

- Sokoloff and Engerman (2003): “Institutions, Factor Endowments and Paths of Development in the New World”, Journal of Economic Perspectives.

- Spolaore & Wacziarg (2013): “How Deep Are the Roots of Economic Development?”, Journal of Economic Literature



Economics of Inequality

  • Ravallion, M. (2016), The Economics of Poverty. History, Measurement and Policy, Oxford University Press.
  • Atkinson, A. and Bourguignon, F. (2000), Handbook of Income Distribution. North Holland.
  • Cowell, F. (1995), “Measuring Inequality”. 2nd edition, Prentice Hall
  • Lambert, P. (2001), The Distribution and Redistribution of Income, 3rd edition, Manchester University Press
  • Silber, J. (1999), Handbook on Income Inequality Measurement, Boston: Kluwer.


Software

  • Statistical/Econometric software and/or for data management: Stata.

Course groups and languages

The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE

Type of teaching Group Language Semester Shift
(TEm) Theory (master) 30 English second semester morning-mixed