Geography of Economic Development

The Geography of Economic Development course aims to provide students with the knowledge essential for understanding what economic development is and where it comes from, as well as what it means and what it implies in the 21st century. The teaching, based on the most solid and well-founded acquisitions in economic history and theory, is aimed at clarifying and exploring what are the necessary preconditions for development, the difference between development and growth, why development has affected only certain geographical areas of the world, the role of markets and international trade, access to the international division of labor, the crucial role of productivity, human capital and innovation, the link between economic development and civil development, and the categories of development and underdevelopment. The Course also aims to provide a conceptual framework useful for understanding not only how geographic factors can affect development - understood as emergence from poverty, stagnation and underdevelopment - but also how those foundations must be integrated with other economic factors to explain development. The Course then addresses, ex adverso, the main political and administrative obstacles to development and the permanent risks of backsliding into underdevelopment, combining economic theory with some case studies from different countries and continents. The course is part of the educational objectives of the GOV Master's Degree Program, which aims to provide, among other things, skills consistent with the professional profiles and expected employment outlets, based primarily on an understanding of the interplay between politics, government, administration and economics, in the face of the impressive political-economic transformations taking place since the end of the twentieth century.

At the end of the Course, students are expected to have developed: knowledge and understanding of the history and theory of economic development; the ability to read with the geographical and economic-political lens everything that revolves around development, applying with personal competence, critical ability and logical-argumentative precision the theoretical and conceptual knowledge acquired and demonstrating a mastery of the topics examined. The final exam aims to assess the expected learning outcomes by evaluating the ability to understand and critically analyze the interpretations and general theoretical-empirical and conceptual framework provided by the course.