K2SP 3630 - Labor market inequality, discrimination, and public policies

Content-wise, the class will focus on ethno-racial inequality and will start by providing a history of racial categorization in public statistical systems. The class will then document long-run wage & income gaps, and provide tools to measure discrimination in the labor market. It will offer an understanding of (some) non-policy factors behind these long-run trends. The class will study the role of policy and institutions in shaping racial inequality. Skills-wise, students will learn how to apply the toolkit of policy evaluation to real public policy questions. They will build research translation skills, and gain an appreciation of historically informed policy.

Claire MONTIALOUX

Cours magistral seul

English

Readings will be assigned on a weekly basis. Compulsory readings (one or two per week) will be marked with a star (*), and accompanied by a list of optional readings. References will be a mix of academic papers, book chapters, policy briefs and podcasts.

This course is open to master students from the Social Policy and Social Innovation Policy streams of the School of Public Affairs. The course is intended for students wishing to understand the dynamics of labor market inequality – with an emphasis on racial inequality -- in a broad set of countries around the world, and the role of public policies in reducing them. The course will review some concepts of public policy evaluation learned in the policy analysis and policy evaluation class in the first semester. The content of this class partly overlaps with the “Economics of Discrimination” class (joint with Ghazala Azmat) in the Formation Académique Commune (FAC).

Spring 2023-2024

The grade for this class will be composed of: participation in class discussion on a weekly basis (10%), one in-class exam (individual) (30%), and one in-class policy issue presentation (small groups of students) (60%).

The class will be primarily composed of lectures that will walk the students through in-depth case studies. For example, the question of how universal policies can reduce racial inequality will be presented through the example of the effect of the introduction of the minimum wage in certain industries in the US during the Civil Rights Era. The class will contain at least two students-led sessions (validation of the course), and one guest lecture by a policy expert.