Capstones and Courses

Faculty Member: David Blakeslee

Course Description:
This course covers the roles of factor accumulation, technology, human capital and ideas in the growth process; the political economy of growth; the role of openness to international trade versus international trade barriers; and growth and income inequality. The course provides an overview of foreign aid in the economic development process and the policies of international institutions like the IMF and World Bank. The course also includes: the study of randomized experiments in evaluating aid projects and development interventions; rural land markets; credit markets in imperfect and fragmented capital markets; the household migration decision; and nutrition and fertility decisions.

Faculty Member: Heitor Pellegrina

Course Description

What is the role of government in the economy? Should the government tax or subsidize particular activities in the economy? If so, how? The goal of this course is to teach students how to use basic economic frameworks and econometric methods to analyze economic policy. In particular, we will introduce different types of market imperfections to basic economic frameworks and study how these imperfections generate a role for the government in the economy. The course will cover five major economic models and discuss both analytical and empirical aspects of such models. Applications will be based on current policy debates about inequality, industrial and trade policy, migration, deforestation, and COVID.

Faculty Member: David Blakeslee

Course Description

How can the economies of the world become richer? Fairer? More open to opportunity? We will investigate economic growth, poverty, inequality, and the sources of economic change. The course begins by reviewing the relationships between poverty, inequality, and economic growth. Attention then turns to the role of markets, with a focus on finance. Then we turn to interventions designed to improve education, address demographic change, reduce the burden of disease, and confront corruption.

Faculty Member: John Ham

Course Description

After taking this class, students will be familiar with the main techniques used in modern empirical microeconomics. They will understand the theory behind these methods, as well as threats to the validity of these methods. They will finally be able to implement these methods. This class will cover the theory of the classical regression model, including asymptotic theory. Next, we will consider the theory, and implementation issues, for situations where the assumptions of the classical linear model do not hold. Examples where appropriate will be taken from development economics, experimental economics, health economics, labor economics, and public finance. We will use matrix algebra wherever it will increase the students’ understanding.

Faculty Member: Peter Cornelis van der Windt

Course Description

It is now widely acknowledged that politics plays a central role in influencing economic development. This makes the political economy of development a central area of research. While a student with an introductory background to political economy will have familiarity with theories based on voting, this course stresses a variety of other factors that explain why some countries are rich and democratic while others are poor, corrupt, and unstable. After discussing the real meaning of development, the course surveys classical and contemporary theories of economic growth and development ranging from neoclassical to structural to recent endogenous growth theories. Specific topics reviewed in the second part of the course include population growth, migration, the security of property rights, the creation of market and non-market institutions, lobbying and rent-seeking, corruption, social conflict, and the political economy of redistribution. Examples from historical experience as well as modern developing countries would be used throughout the course.

Faculty Member: Morgan Hardy

Course Description:

Close to 1 billion of the world’s population live on less than what is effectively 99 US cents a day. A child born in Sub-Saharan Africa is 10 times more likely to die as an infant than a child born in the US, largely of biologically preventable illnesses. One in four Indians are illiterate. Are these facts necessary? What has and can be done to change them? Topics in development economics are concerned with the pursuit of understanding facts and questions like these. This is a challenging introductory course for college students who are motivated to learn more about what can be done in the fight against global poverty and who are ready for a busy few weeks of intense learning and skill development in research design, fieldwork, and data analysis for development economics.

Faculty Member: Yaw Nyarko

Course Description:

This course will cover topics on the interface between economics and computer science, with special emphasis on issues of importance to economically developing regions. Students will work in teams to tackle real-world and interdisciplinary problems. Students will address questions of markets and economic development using Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICTD) techniques in the context of development.