Course: Course Measuring Economic Insecurity: Theoretical and Empirical Approaches

Professors: Conchita D’Ambrosio, Anthony Lepinteur, Eugenio Peluso

ECTS: 1

Aims:

This course will provide a comprehensive examination of economic insecurity, integrating both theoretical frameworks and empirical methods to offer a comprehensive understanding of the topic. An initial section will explore the parallelism between risk and inequality measurement, with a focus on the behavioural implications of risk attitudes, both in the unidimensional and the multidimensional
case.
Students will be introduced to the axiomatic approach, a formal method that establishes clear, logical foundations for constructing and evaluating measures of economic insecurity. Through this approach, students will critically engage with the properties and implications of different economic insecurity indices, learning how to rigorously assess their suitability and limitations in empirical work.
Both objective measures, such as income fluctuations, and subjective measures, such as perceived job loss probabilities, will also be presented. This dual perspective will allow students to appreciate the complex ways in which economic insecurity manifests and how it is experienced by individuals and households.
In addition to theoretical exploration, students will engage with recent empirical research, reviewing papers that demonstrate cutting-edge methods for measuring economic insecurity. These studies will also highlight how insecurity influences behaviours, such as labour market outcomes, savings, consumption patterns, as well as well-being. Practical elements of the course will involve hands-on data analysis, where students will work with survey datasets to quantify economic insecurity using both objective and subjective indicators. The course will guide students through the process of operationalising these measures and analysing
their impacts. A portion of the course will focus specifically on job insecurity – examining how concerns about job loss and career stability affect labour market behaviour, decision-making, and overall well-being – providing a case study within the broader framework of economic insecurity

Registration & Practical Information: soon available on Moodle