Ateneo - UPO

The integrated course examines the economic, financial, organisational, and institutional consequences of disasters and health and humanitarian crises, together with the policies and instruments used to prevent and manage them and support recovery.

The first module, Economic Policy of Disasters and Humanitarian Crises, introduces economic reasoning applied to emergencies, examining scarcity, incentives, trade-offs, vulnerability, institutional capacity, the effects of disasters on households, firms, supply chains, and public finance, prevention and reconstruction policies, and international humanitarian and health coordination mechanisms.

The second module, Economics of Disasters and Health Crises, focuses on disaster-risk measurement, the functioning of insurance markets, the design of humanitarian programmes, needs assessment, intervention monitoring, poverty, and social-protection policies.

The third module, Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy in Disasters and Health Crises, addresses the economic analysis of property and intellectual-property rights, international trade and trade policies, supply-chain shocks, and the use of agent-based models to simulate crises and assess public interventions.

Cases, data, exercises, simulations, and applied activities integrate economic, financial, humanitarian, health, and operational perspectives.

Economic policy, risk, and resilience component

CORE Econ Team, The Economy 2.0: Economics for a Changing World, open-access textbook.

CORE Econ Team, Economy, Society, and Public Policy, open-access textbook.

World Bank and United Nations (2010), Natural Hazards, UnNatural Disasters: The Economics of Effective Prevention.

Hallegatte, S., Vogt-Schilb, A., Bangalore, M., and Rozenberg, J. (2017), Unbreakable: Building the Resilience of the Poor in the Face of Natural Disasters, World Bank.

Hallegatte, S., Rentschler, J., and Rozenberg, J. (2020), Adaptation Principles: A Guide for Designing Strategies for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience, World Bank.

UNDRR, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030.

Insurance, humanitarian programming, and poverty component

UN OCHA, Humanitarian Programme Cycle Guide.

UNHCR, Needs Assessment Handbook.

Sphere Association, The Sphere Handbook: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response.

World Health Organization, Emergency Response Framework.

Haughton, J. and Khandker, S. R., Handbook on Poverty and Inequality, World Bank.

Banerjee, A. and Duflo, E. (2012), Poor Economics, PublicAffairs.

Gentilini, U. (2024), Timely Cash: Lessons from 2,500 Years of Giving People Money, Oxford University Press.

Law, trade, and computational-modelling component

Cooter, R. and Ulen, T. (2011), Law and Economics, 6th edition, Pearson.

Krugman, P. R., Obstfeld, M., and Melitz, M. (2022), International Trade: Theory and Policy, 12th Global Edition.

Miller, J. H. and Page, S. E. (2007), Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life, Princeton University Press.

Wilensky, U. and Rand, W. (2015), An Introduction to Agent-Based Modeling, MIT Press.

Dawid, H. and Delli Gatti, D. (2018), Agent-Based Macroeconomics, in Handbook of Computational Economics, vol. 4.

Additional academic articles, reports, guidelines, databases, cases, slides, and exercises will be made available on the course platform. The instructors will specify the compulsory sections and materials required for the examination.

The integrated course aims to provide students with an interdisciplinary framework for understanding, analysing, and addressing disasters and health and humanitarian crises.

In particular, the course develops students’ ability to:

1. use economic reasoning to analyse decisions made under scarcity, risk, urgency, and incomplete information;

2. understand how development, poverty, inequality, institutions, exposure, and vulnerability shape disaster outcomes;

3. distinguish direct damage, indirect losses, and welfare effects on households, firms, and communities;

4. analyse the effects of disasters on firms, supply chains, markets, public finance, and health systems;

5. understand the functioning of insurance markets and risk-financing and risk-transfer instruments;

6. understand the stages of the humanitarian programme cycle, from needs assessment to response planning and monitoring;

7. analyse the relationships between poverty, behaviour, social protection, education, and crisis-response capacity;

8. understand the role of property and intellectual-property rights in pharmaceutical innovation and access to treatment;

9. interpret the effects of international trade, trade policies, and global shocks on supply chains;

10. understand the basic principles of agent-based modelling and its use in simulating crises and public interventions;

11. compare alternative policies in terms of efficiency, equity, incentives, feasibility, institutional capacity, and distributional effects;

12. apply the knowledge acquired in an integrated manner to cases, scenarios, and simulations concerning disasters and health and humanitarian crises.

No specific prerequisites are required.

The economic, financial, legal, statistical, and computational concepts required for the course will be progressively introduced in the different modules.

Basic knowledge of economics, law, mathematics, statistics, and digital tools may facilitate the understanding of some topics, but it is not mandatory.

The course is taught in English.

The course is taught in English and delivered in blended mode through a combination of online activities, in-person teaching, and interactive learning.

Teaching activities include:

- video lectures and online modules progressively introducing theoretical content;
- self-assessment quizzes and short exercises;
- interactive lectures;
- case analysis and discussion;
- workshops and virtual classrooms;
- guided data exploration;
- exercises on needs assessment and humanitarian planning;
- simulations and role plays;
- crisis-management games and tabletop exercises;
- practical activities using statistical and modelling software, including STATA and NetLogo;
- individual and collaborative work;
- seminars and guided debriefing.

Applied activities connect the content of the three modules and require students to jointly use economic, financial, legal, humanitarian, and computational tools.

Cases and simulations are designed to test students’ ability to identify problems, relevant actors, resources, constraints, incentives, risks, and distributional effects and to compare possible policy responses.

Regular participation in online activities, synchronous sessions, and in-person classes is strongly recommended.

Teaching materials, video lectures, slides, quizzes, exercises, datasets, cases, schedules, and practical instructions will be published on the course platform.

Since the activities of the three modules are designed progressively and in an integrated manner, students are advised to complete the online materials and related activities before participating in applied classes and the residential phase.

Students with disabilities, Specific Learning Disorders (DSA), or Special Educational Needs (BES) may request dedicated services and support tools by contacting the University’s Staff Sviluppo e Coordinamento Carriere e Servizi alle Studentesse e agli Studenti and consulting the relevant page of the University website: https://uniupo.it/it/servizi/servizi-studenti-disabili-e-dsa

After contacting the relevant University staff, students with disabilities, DSA, or BES may contact the course instructor to discuss the application of the approved measures and the arrangements for the examination in relation to teaching and assessment activities.

Final assessment for the integrated course consists of an individual, in-person written examination divided into three sections corresponding to the three modules:

1. Economic Policy of Disasters and Humanitarian Crises;

2. Economics of Disasters and Health Crises;

3. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy in Disasters and Health Crises.

The examination includes multiple-choice and/or structured questions and is designed to assess:

- knowledge and understanding of the main economic, financial, legal, humanitarian, and computational concepts covered in the course;
- the ability to interpret data, indicators, scenarios, and policy instruments;
- the ability to identify risks, vulnerabilities, incentives, constraints, trade-offs, and distributional effects;
- understanding of insurance mechanisms, humanitarian programmes, trade policies, and supply-chain dynamics;
- the ability to apply the knowledge acquired to structured cases and situations;
- understanding of the potential, assumptions, and limitations of the models used.

The final assessment is jointly determined by the instructors of the three modules. The final judgement takes into account the results achieved in the different sections of the examination, the student’s overall level of knowledge and understanding, and the ability to establish coherent connections between the different disciplinary perspectives covered in the course.

Consideration is also given to the ability to develop an integrated understanding of the course and to apply economic, financial, legal, humanitarian, and computational knowledge to the analysis of cases, scenarios, and complex problems concerning disasters and health and humanitarian crises.

The final grade is expressed on a thirty-point scale and is jointly determined by taking into account the results obtained in the three modules and their weighting according to the corresponding ECTS credits.

A minimum final grade of 18/30 is required to pass the examination. A passing grade requires knowledge of the core concepts, understanding of the relevant context, and the ability to recognise their main applications. Higher grades require comprehensive knowledge of the topics, accurate and structured reasoning, the ability to establish connections between the three modules, and the ability to critically assess policy instruments and alternative interventions.

Self-assessment quizzes, e-tivities, discussions, simulations, and practical activities completed during the course are formative and preparatory and do not directly contribute to the final grade.

Any online test required for the award of an Open Badge must be passed in accordance with the thresholds and procedures established by the cluster regulations and, where applicable, is a prerequisite for accessing the final examination.

MODULE 1 – ECONOMIC POLICY OF DISASTERS AND HUMANITARIAN CRISES

1. Economic reasoning in emergencies

- scarcity, resource allocation, and prioritisation;
- opportunity cost, incentives, and behavioural responses;
- efficiency, equity, feasibility, and trade-offs;
- positive and normative analysis;
- data, correlation, causality, and evidence for decision-making.

2. Development, vulnerability, and risk

- GDP, development, productivity, and differences across countries;
- poverty, inequality, and human development;
- institutions, public goods, and market failures;
- risk, hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.

3. Economic effects of disasters

- direct damage, indirect losses, and welfare effects;
- households, coping strategies, poverty, and human capital;
- firms, local economic systems, and supply chains;
- macroeconomic effects, fiscal space, and public finance.

4. Prevention, response, and reconstruction

- prevention and preparedness;
- insurance, risk financing, and social protection;
- essential cost-benefit logic;
- emergency response, recovery, reconstruction, and building back better;
- resilience-building.

5. Humanitarian and health coordination

- the United Nations system, OCHA, and the Cluster System;
- the Global Health Cluster and the role of WHO;
- minimum standards and the Sphere Handbook;
- essential health services in emergencies;
- civil-military coordination;
- humanitarian principles, security, and ethical and operational dilemmas.

MODULE 2 – ECONOMICS OF DISASTERS AND HEALTH CRISES

6. Disaster risk and data

- definition and measurement of risk;
- disaster data;
- risk, uncertainty, and risk literacy;
- information as a public good.

7. Disaster insurance

- individual decision-making under uncertainty;
- risk aversion;
- demand for insurance;
- supply and operation of insurance markets;
- adverse selection and moral hazard;
- policies to increase insurance coverage;
- introduction to empirical data analysis using STATA.

8. Humanitarian programmes

- architecture of the humanitarian system;
- the Humanitarian Programme Cycle;
- needs assessment and analysis;
- response planning;
- intervention monitoring and evaluation;
- leadership in health emergencies;
- humanitarian principles and ethical dilemmas.

9. Poverty and social protection

- concepts and measurement of poverty;
- the ethics of poverty reduction;
- the relationship between poverty and behaviour;
- experimental evidence and Randomised Controlled Trials;
- cash transfers and social protection;
- education and poverty reduction.

MODULE 3 – APPLIED ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES AND POLICY IN DISASTERS AND HEALTH CRISES

10. Economic analysis of law

- introduction to law and economics;
- the economic function of property rights;
- intellectual property and incentives for innovation;
- pharmaceutical innovation, access to treatment, and public-health protection;
- applications to health emergencies.

11. International trade, trade policies, and supply chains

- foundations of international trade;
- benefits and costs of trade;
- trade-policy instruments;
- cooperation and conflict between countries;
- tariff wars and trade-policy shocks;
- effects on firms and supply chains;
- responses to global economic shocks.

12. Agent-based models and simulations

- introduction to complex systems and agent-based modelling;
- representation of individual and collective behaviour;
- interactions, heterogeneity, and emergent effects;
- model construction, calibration, and analysis;
- introduction to NetLogo;
- application of models to natural, health, and economic disasters;
- simulation and assessment of possible policies.

INTEGRATED ACTIVITIES

- analysis of real-world cases;
- data exploration and interpretation;
- simulations and role plays;
- crisis-management games and tabletop exercises;
- discussion of trade-offs and decision-making dilemmas;
- exercises using STATA and NetLogo;
- comparison of intervention packages;
- interdisciplinary debriefing and synthesis.

By the end of the integrated course, students will have achieved the following learning outcomes.

Knowledge and understanding

Students will be able to:

- describe the main economic, financial, social, and health effects of disasters;
- understand the relationships between development, poverty, vulnerability, risk, and resilience;
- explain the functioning of insurance markets and the main information problems;
- understand the stages of the humanitarian programme cycle;
- understand the role of social protection and education in reducing vulnerability;
- explain the economic function of property and intellectual-property rights;
- understand the basic mechanisms of international trade and trade policies;
- understand the basic principles of agent-based modelling;
- describe the main international humanitarian and health coordination mechanisms.

Applying knowledge and understanding

Students will be able to:

- use data and indicators to interpret disaster risks and consequences;
- identify damage, losses, relevant actors, resources, constraints, and information gaps;
- analyse insurance decisions and risk-transfer strategies;
- contribute to needs assessment and humanitarian-response planning;
- apply economic and legal concepts to innovation and access-to-treatment problems;
- interpret the effects of trade shocks on firms and supply chains;
- use simple statistical tools and agent-based models;
- compare alternative interventions and anticipate their effects.

Making judgements

Students will be able to:

- recognise trade-offs between speed, efficiency, equity, security, sustainability, and feasibility;
- critically assess data and evidence;
- distinguish positive analysis from normative judgement;
- identify intended and unintended policy effects;
- assess whether interventions are compatible with financial, institutional, and operational constraints;
- recognise the limitations and assumptions of the models used.

Communication skills

Students will be able to:

- clearly present policy problems and alternatives;
- appropriately use economic, financial, legal, humanitarian, and computational terminology;
- interpret and communicate data, results, and simulations;
- participate in interdisciplinary discussions and activities;
- justify their decisions and compare them with alternative options.

Learning skills

Students will be able to:

- independently use textbooks, reports, databases, guidelines, and software;
- update their knowledge of disasters and health and humanitarian crises;
- transfer the concepts and tools acquired to different crises, territories, and institutional settings;
- integrate different disciplinary perspectives when analysing complex problems.