Development and sustainability

This course seeks to develop a rigorous treatment of the theory and evidence on sustainable development, and to show how formal economic thinking can assist real world policymaking in areas such as climate change, ecosystem conservation and pollution regulation.
The course objectives are:
- Help students understand the relationship between environmental protection and economic growth.
- Guide students in understanding the main issues in sustainable development and the main policy tools to foster sustainability and development.
- Foster the development among students of the ability to critically evaluate the empirical evidence, specifically in terms of causal inference, drawing on a basic knowledge of impact evaluation methodologies.
- Offer opportunities to practice critical thinking and policy evaluation skills through the analysis of empirical data, group discussion and writing of critical reviews of the literature.

Students will acquire a set of skills that will be useful for their future, both within and outside academia:
- Knowledge on the key institutional, market, infrastructural, social and environmental constraints faced by people living in developing countries, which will prove useful in understanding the current debate on development and environmental policies.
- The focus of the course on methodological aspects will help students acquire the ability to critically evaluate claims of causality and assess the impact of policy interventions.
- The range of assignments for the course will improve students' ability to read critically an academic article, will give them the opportunity to practice their data analysis and writing skills, and will inform their future thesis work by encouraging to think in depth about a topic of their choosing within the course curriculum.