Supplementary courses
Online
10 CATS points
Regular fees: 280 - 300 GBP
| Description | Costs |
|---|---|
| Home/EU fee | £280.00 |
| Non-EU fee | £300.00 |
| Take this course for CATS points | £10.00 |
Why are some people rich and some people poor? What determines how wide the gap is in different countries? What should governments do to deal with inequality? This course looks to answer these questions that have become part of recent political, economic and social debates.
Labour market inequality, particularly the difference in earnings between the highest paid and lowest paid, has become an important topic across many countries. Many governments agree that the gap between the best-off and worst-off has grown too large, and that as well as being unjust, such outcomes are also detrimental to other social and economic outcomes. This course looks at what determines pay in developed countries, and why this differs so much between them. It examines the role human capital - a worker's education, capabilities and skills - have played in the past, and the role it is expected to play in the future. However, it then goes beyond a human capital approach and considers what role employers and institutions play, and how, if ever, government policy can reduce inequality when more education and training isn't enough.
The course has been developed by Dr Craig Holmes and Professor Ken Mayhew, both economists at Oxford University.
Programme details
The units are as follows:
- Inequality across the OECD: concepts and measures
- The consequences of inequality: why should we care?
- A simple model of the labour market and earnings outcomes
- The race between the supply and demand of skills 1: globalisation
- The race between the supply and demand of skills 2: technology
- What explains very high pay at the top?
- Over-education and inequality
- Low pay
- Labour market institutions 1: unions and minimum wages
- Labour market institutions 2: shaping the labour supply
Recommended reading
To participate in this course you will need to have regular access to the Internet and you will need to buy the following book:
Salverda, W., Nolan, B. and Smeeding, T. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Economic Inequality (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011)
Certification
To earn credit (CATS points) for your course you will need to register and pay an additional £10 fee for each course you enrol on. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online. If you do not register when you enrol, you have up until the course start date to register and pay the £10 fee.
For more information on CATS point please click on the link below: http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/studentsupport/faq/cats.php
Coursework is an integral part of all online courses and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework, but only those who have registered for credit will be awarded CATS points for completing work at the required standard. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.
Assignments are not graded but are marked either pass or fail.
All students who successfully complete this course, whether registered for credit or not, are eligible for a Certificate of Completion. Completion consists of submitting both course assignments and actively participating in the course forums. Certificates will be available, online, for those who qualify after the course finishes.
