The course offers a snapshot of key issues related to development through the lens of economic analysis. It is therefore a necessary pillar for the multidisciplinary vocation if AGIC as it will provide general economic skills required to operate in the context of development and international cooperation.

After the course, students are expected to understand general economic reports and statistics such as those edited by the World Bank. To this purpose, students will get familiar with the most common theories and methods to understand and measure development, poverty, inequality, migration and population dynamics. They will also acquire basic knowledge of the 'theory and practice of microfinance, and will be briefly introduced to quantitative and experimental tools to measure the impact of a programme/policy/project in the context of developing countries.

The first part of the course (11 lectures of 2h each) will cover traditional topics in development economics including measuring development (GDP, GNI, PPP, HDI, etc.), comparative economic development, convergence hypothesis, poverty (Headcount index, poverty lines, poverty gap) and poverty traps, growth theories (Rostow, Harrod-Domar, Lewis and Solow), population dynamics (Malthusian poverty trap, demographic transitions and fertility), inequality (Gini, Lorenz, Kuznets) and migration (Todaro).

The second part of the course (7 lectures of 2h each) will focus on theoretical and practical issues related to microfinance including the characteristics of credit markets in development countries, why these markets often fail and how the incentive schemes proposed by microfinance projects might mitigate market failures. In the second part of the course introductory notions of counterfactual impact evaluation as well as of behavioural/experimental economics will be provided in the specific context of microfinance and project evaluation. Case studies will be presented as potential applications of such concepts.