Ph.D. Program on Politics and Economics of Developing Countries

The three year PhD program in the Politics and Economics of Developing Countries represents the third educational layer of the overall curriculum in development economics offered at the University of Florence. Besides a PhD program, the curriculum includes also a three year B.Sc. program in Development Economics and International Cooperation and a two year Master Program in Advanced Development Economics.

The Ph.D. Program aims at providing its students those methodological tools needed to analyse the social and economic structures and political institutions of developing countries, their evolution over time and their links to the developed countries and the international economy. The PhD program focuses in particular on the theoretical and empirical analysis of the changes in growth, inequality, poverty and human development induced by endogenous factors, national economic policies and changes taking place in the world economy.

To achieve these objectives, the PhD program is articulated in eight blocs of lectures and a series of ad hoc seminars dealing with the economic, econometric, statistic, historic and demographic methodologies needed to take decisions on development issues under conditions of incomplete information. The educational approach followed assigns a central role to economics, but draws also on the political sciences, economic history, anthropology and sociology.

Most lecturers in the PhD Program are members of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Florence, or teach in other Italian or foreign universities, or do theoretical and applied work in research centres and international organizations working on development issues. Close contacts are also maintained with other Florence-based research and teaching institutions such as the European University Institute, the Innocenti Research Centre (UNICEF's worldwide research centre) and the Istituto Agronomico d'Oltremare.

Educational objectives

The PhD program aims at creating highly skilled personnel desiring to (i) work in the field of development related research and teaching, either in academic institutions or public-private research centres, (ii) carry out policy analyses or manage-evaluate programs of technical assistance or financial assistance, (iii) provide consulting services to national, international and non governmental organisations, (iv) work in large firms or networks of small and medium enterprises promoting an equitable and sustainable development through investments and technology transfers to developing countries.

During the first year, the PhD program includes eight standard blocks of lectures dealing with: data analysis and statistical techniques; poverty, inequality and their interaction with growth; development micro-economics; development macro-economics; public economics; industrial economics with a special focus on small and medium enterprises; international economics; and area studies. The PhD program foresees the participation of its students to 3-4 ad hoc seminars on development-related topics and to some 8-10 seminars organized by the Department of Economic Studies on economic, political economy and economic history issues.

These lectures and seminars aim at improving the knowledge of methodologies and analytical-quantitative tools that are needed for carrying out research and literature reviews on development issues and international relationships, giving priority to the concrete application of such tools to real life situations and problems observed in less developed areas and countries.

Associated Institutions

The administration of the PhD program in the Politics and Economics of the Developing Countries is located at Department of Economic Sciences of the University of Florence where the lectures and seminars are held and where a studying place is provided to the PhD students. Two other departments of the University of Florence - the Department of Statistics "G. Parenti" and the Department on State Studies - also participate to the Ph.D. program.

The Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods and European School in Advanced Studies in Cooperation and Development of the University of Pavia, the Oriental University of Naples (Faculty of Political Sciences) and the University of Urbino (Faculty of Political Sciences) are associated members of the Florence-based PhD. Their lecturers take part in the academic activities of the PhD program and in the supervision of its students.

Several national and international academic and research institutions contribute in a less formal but not less important way to the activities of the PhD Program which prides itself on the large number of well known scholars belonging to national or foreign institutions that lecture, give conferences, or supervise PhD theses or term papers. Fairly close contacts are also kept with Italian and foreign NGOs and the General Directorate for Development Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote experience exchanges and facilitate the field research of our PhD students.