Economics and Policy of Growth and Sustainable Development

The course aims to present students with the theoretical and applied foundations of the concepts of sustainable growth and development.
The first part of the course is aimed at introducing the methods of investigation and the answers to the growth economy to three fundamental questions: 1) What determines the growth of economic systems? 2) Why are the inhabitants of rich countries much richer than they were 100 years ago? 3) What determines the disparity in growth and the division between rich and poor countries?
The second part of the course aims to deepen the relations between economic-social growth and the environment, discussing which economic, social and environmental conditions can be integrated to allow a sustainable development.

At the end of the course, students will achieve a good knowledge and understanding of the major social economic drivers of economic growth. They will be able to relate the concept of growth to the wider domain of sustainable development, understanding complementarity and trade off. They will be familiar with pro-growth and pro-sustainability economic policies. They will acquire a basic knowledge of the national and international initiatives on sustainable development.
Students could then apply this knowledge to the interpretation of development and under development issues, with the critical capacity to evaluate pros and cons of major pro-growth and pro-poor policies; they will be able to follow the UN process within the Agenda 2030 program and finally will be able to autonomously improve their competencies in these fields.