Global Professor of EconomicsAffiliation:Visiting Education: Statistician, Ecole nationale de la statistique et de l'administration économique, 1965-1968. DEA, Mathématiques appliquées, Université Paris-6, 1971. Ph. D in economics, University of Western Ontario, Canada, 1975. Doctorat d'Etat en économie, Université d'Orléans, 1979.
François Bourguignon is an emeritus professor of economics at the Paris School of Economics. He served as the director of the Paris School from 2007 to 2013 and was previously the chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank in Washington. Before that, he spent most of his academic career at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences in Paris.
Bourguignon has authored numerous academic papers and books on poverty and inequality in both developing and advanced countries. He is actively involved in the international development community, advising leading international agencies and governments, and has received several scientific distinctions throughout his career.
His recent publications include the Institutional Diagnostic Project, a series of books published by Cambridge University Press in 2023, such as Institutional Challenges at Early Stages of Development, State and Business in Tanzania’s Development, Is the Bangladesh Paradox Sustainable?, and State Capture and Rent-seeking in Benin.
Courses Taught
“Our dream: a world free of poverty”, the motto of the World Bank, is of universal significance. What would it take to make this dream possible? We are all reminded everyday, in the news or otherwise, of the poverty that strikes a large part of the population in developing and emerging countries, often due to some natural disaster or conflict. We are also told of millions of people who are poor in so-called ‘advanced’ countries. Or is it a different kind of poverty? Poverty encompasses many other dimensions than a low level of monetary income, including the comparison of poor people with the rest of society, which comes under another key social concept, inequality. This course considers the measurements and definitions required to effectively fight poverty. We will evaluate the poverty and inequality trends, and their socio-demographic structure, in individual countries and in the world. We also reflect on the root causes of poverty at the individual, country, and global levels. Finally, the course focuses on available policy instruments in advanced and developing countries, and internationally, to lower poverty and inequality around the world.
Prerequisite: Must be an NYU Abu Dhabi student and have not completed the Core: Colloquium requirement.
Previously taught: Spring 2023, Spring 2024
This course appears in...
Core Curriculum > Colloquia
International organizations today define poverty as having to live with less than USD 1.90 a day at the prices observed in advanced countries. With such a definition, there are today a little less than 1 billion poor people in the world, or 13 percent of the global population. With the same definition, there were more than 90 per cent two centuries ago. This seems indeed a huge progress. Yet, there are serious questions behind that definition and those figures. Why USD 1.90 a day? Where does this figure come from? How satisfactory is a definition of poverty that implies that there is practically no poor person in the United States or Europe today? Should poverty be measured with a pure monetary metric? How should the subjective and social aspect of poverty be taken into account? Alternative definitions often paint a much less optimistic landscape, with poverty diminishing much more slowly and in some cases not at all. More fundamentally, how is it the case that, even with the 1.90 USD a day definition, there still are countries today where about half the population is below that level? What are the obstacles these countries face in trying to access a higher standard of living?
Prerequisites: ECON-UH 2010 and (ECON-UH 2020 or SOCSC-UH 3220)
Previously taught: Spring 1 2017, Spring 1 2018
This course appears in...
Majors > Economics > Development and Economic History Track
Majors > Political Science > Breadth Electives
Majors > Social Research and Public Policy > Institutions and Public Policy
Majors > Social Research and Public Policy > Social Structure and Global Processes Electives
Economic policy may be seen as the ultimate goal of economic analysis. How to choose between alternative economic courses in some specific area or at the macroeconomic level? How to tradeoff one policy objective, e.g. equity, versus another, e. g, efficiency? How to take into account political constraints while looking for socially optimal policies? Such is the nature of the questions to be handled in this course, which may be taken as the natural culmination of an economic curriculum. Its aim is to make students familiar with the main contemporary issues in economic policy at national level and to equip them with the analytical instruments to understand what is at stake in policy debates around the world and, ultimately, to form one's opinion about what should be done in particular areas. The course will deal with economic policy issues as applicable to any country, even though special attention will be given to emerging and developing countries. As far as possible, it will also systematically emphasize the distributional consequences of policies and consequent political economy dimension? It will not deal with multilateral issues like trade, migration or environment.
Prerequisites: ECON-UH 2020 and ECON-UH 3010
Previously taught: Spring 1 2019, Spring 1 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 1 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 1 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks Francois Bourguignon
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TR 14:10 - 15:25
Taught in Abu Dhabi
Spring 2025;
14 Weeks F 15:45 - 17:00
Taught in Abu Dhabi
