GT/ES/EC 325 - The Economics of Social & Environmental Sustainability: Food & Wine Sectors in the New Globalization

The course provides an overview of economics and social sustainability issues in the global economy. This course will provide students with theoretical concepts and models with respect to sustainability as well as hands-on experience in the new era of economics of sustainability. Finally, the course will analyze in particular the sustainability in wine and food sectors, with a specific focus on the reality of Tuscany and Italy. Food and wine sectors will be used as tools to understand how to apply the principles of economic, social and environmental sustainability.

The first week will focus on introductory remarks of definitions, preview and foundations of sustainability and sustainable development. During the second week, will focus on inequality, poverty and Kuznets Curve. The third week will focus on sustainability conditions and the Environmental Kuznets Curve, in theory and practice. The fourth week will focus on the concept of sustainable development, global warming and energy trends. The fifth week will focus on inequality health and environment. The sixth week will focus on globalization process and the connection with environmental and social variables. The seventh week will focus on the concepts and issues of the new globalization. The eighth week will focus on sustainable firm and their long-run performance and the corporate social responsibility. The ninth week will focus on environmental policy for sustainable development. The tenth week will analyze the position of Governments and their policies about Sustainable development.

For each topic, the instructor will provide theoretical and empirical examples related to the field of wine and food.

The emphasis in the course is to enable students to apply the concepts learned to every economic and social context, helping them develop the capacity to analyze problems and to solve them using the principles of sustainable development. In particular, we would like the students to understand the role of the agricultural sectors of wine and food in the development of the principles of sustainable development in European, Italian and Tuscan economies.

This course forms part of the IES Abroad Independent Research Program. It can be combined with the Introduction to Research Module for an additional 1-credit.