The Political Economy of Inequalities

Population, Human Capital and Policy (PLEASE NOTE: THIS CONCENTRATION AREA WILL NO LONGER BE OFFERED TO NEW STUDENTS WHO BEGIN IN WINTER SEMESTER 2020.  A NEW SEEP CONCENTRATION AREA TO REPLACE THIS ONE WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON.)

This course introduces participants to fundamental demographic concepts and their applications to the study of human capital formation. Graduates are able to

(a) collect and interpret basic demographic indicators from published statistics,

(b) calculate life tables and different indicators of reproduction,

(c) perform projections of population and human capital formation,

(d) interpret new developments in the international discussions about population, education and health policies,

(e) perform comparative studies of demographic, education and health trends in different countries and on different continents and evaluate the results and their policy implications in the context of different analytical frameworks, and

(f) use advanced spreadsheet techniques to present and analyze demographic data.