Course Syllabus

Spring 2021 Boston University

EC722A: COMMUNITY AND GENDER IN DEVELOPMENT

Dilip Mookherjee [email protected] Room 500A, 264 Bay State Road, 617-3534392

This is the first half of the second PhD elective course in development. It focuses on topics located at the intersection of sociology and economics: how community and ethnic networks help overcome market imperfections, generate social inequality, discrimination and conflict in developing countries. Specific topics covered: social networks, ethnic diversity, and gender inequality.

The second part of this course (722b) will be taught by Martin Fiszbein, focusing on long run growth, history, culture and institutions.

Class: T, Th 11am-1215 (Jan 26—March 11), held remotely in Zoom at https://bostonu.zoom.us/j/97788715683?pwd=MmFoMmV6azJtOVBudHcyaFI1c XdoUT09

Attendance in IED seminar on Mondays and Development Reading Group Tuesdays 1230—145 is strongly recommended.

Office Hours: M 215-335 pm, T 210-330 pm, Zoom Personal Meeting Room 6179475198

Prerequisites: PhD core courses

Grading (for 722a,b combined): will be based on class presentation/participation (30%), a research proposal/paper/literature review (45%), and problem sets in 722b (25%). You can each select a paper to present in class, from those marked (P). Each presentation will last about 20-25 minutes, followed by open discussion.

Zoom Class Recordings: will follow BU LFA prescribed policies:

All class sessions will be recorded for the benefit of registered students who are unable to attend live sessions (either in person or remotely) due to time zone differences, illness or other special circumstances. Recorded sessions will be made available to registered students ONLY via their password-protected Blackboard account. Students may not share these recordings with anyone not registered in the course and may not repost them in a public platform. Students have the right to opt out of being part of the class recording. Please contact your instructor or teaching assistant to discuss options for participating in the course while opting out of the class recording. No student may record any classroom or other academic activity (including advising sessions or office hours) without my express written consent. Unauthorized use of classroom recordings – including distributing or posting them – is also prohibited. If you have (or think you may have) a disability such that you need to record classroom activities, or need other assistive services, you should contact Disability & Access Services to request an appropriate accommodation. More information may be found here.

TOPICS AND READINGS

1. Social Networks, 5 sessions (Jan 26, 28, Feb 2, 4, 9)

Overview (Jan 26)

Matthew Jackson, Social and Economic Networks, Princeton Univ Press, 2008. Introduction (Chapter 1).

Kaivan Munshi, `Community Networks and the Process of Development’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 28(4), Fall 2014, 49-76.

Emily Breza, `Field Experiments, Social Networks and Development,’ Oxford Handbook on the Economics of Networks, eds. Yann Bramoulle, Andrea Galeotti, and Brian Rogers, 2016.

Social Diffusion and Learning (Jan 28, Feb 2)

Abhijit Banerjee, Arun Chandrasekhar, and Matthew Jackson, `The Diffusion of Microfinance,’ Science, 341, 2013.

Mohammad Akbarpour, Suraj Malladi and Amin Saberi, Just a Few Seeds More: Value of Network Information for Diffusion (2020). http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3062830

Timothy Conley and Chris Udry, `Learning About a New Technology: Pineapple in Ghana,’ American Economic Review, 100(1), 2010, 35-69.

(P) Lori Beaman, Arien BenYishay, Jeremy Magruder and Mushfiq Mobarak, `Can Network- Based Targeting Increase Technology Adoption?’ forthcoming, American Economic Review. https://spinup-000d1a-wp-offload-media.s3.amazonaws.com/faculty/wp- content/uploads/sites/45/2020/03/BeamanBenYishayMagruderMobarak.pdf

Network Agents: Motivation and Heterogeneity (Feb 4)

Oriana Bandiera, Robin Burgess, Erika Desseranno and others, `Development Policy Through the Lens of Social Structure,’ working paper, Kellogg School of Management, June 2020. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xL5pbTaEQMFOfgNURYVoLOQGH0pZCmBc/view

Pushkar Maitra, Sandip Mitra, Dilip Mookherjee and Sujata Visaria, `Decentralized Targeting of Agricultural Credit Programs: Private versus Political Intermediaries,’ working paper, revised 2021, Boston University. http://people.bu.edu/dilipm/wkpap/GRAIL_2020_v17SV.pdf

Networks and Migration (Feb 9)

(P) Kaivan Munshi, `Networks in the Modern Economy: Mexican Migrants in the US Labor Market,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2003, 549-599.

(P) Kaivan Munshi and Mark Rosenzweig, `Networks and Misallocation: Insurance, Migration and the Rural-Urban Wage Gap,’ American Economic Review, 106(1), 2016, 46-98.

2. Ethnic Diversity, Conflict and Cooperation. 4 sessions (Feb 11, 18, 23 25)

Overview (Feb 11)

Alberto Alesina and Eliana La Ferrara, `Ethnic Diversity and Economic Performance,’ Journal of Economic Literature, September 2005, 762-800.

James Fearon and David Laitin, `Explaining Interethnic Cooperation,’ American Political Science Review, Dec 1996, 90(4), 715-735.

Joan Esteban and Debraj Ray, "Conflict and Development." Annual Review of Economics 9 (2017): 263-293.

Conflict and Public Goods (Feb 18 (presented by Sid George), Feb 23)

Joan Esteban and Debraj Ray, ``Linking Conflict to Inequality and Polarization,’ American Economic Review, 2011.

Joan Esteban, Laura Mayoral and Debraj Ray, `Ethnicity and Conflict: An Empirical Study,’ American Economic Review, 2012, 102(4), 1310-1342.

Saumitra Jha and Moses Shayo. "Valuing peace: the effects of financial market exposure on votes and political attitudes." Econometrica 87.5 (2019): 1561-1588.

Sam Bazzi, Arya Gaduh, Alex Rothenberg and Maisy Wong, `Unity in Diversity? How Inter- Group Contact can Foster Nation-Building,’ American Economic Review, 2019. Discrimination (Feb 25)

Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan, `Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha or Jamal?”, American Economic Review, Sept 2004, 94(4).

Rema Hanna and Leigh Linden, `Discrimination in Grading,’ American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2012, 4(4).

(P) Gautam Rao, `Familiarity Does Not Breed Contempt: Generosity, Discrimination and Diversity in Delhi Schools,’ American Economic Review, 2019.

3. Gender and Children, 4 sessions (March 2, 4, 9, 11)

Background (March 2)

Shelly Lundberg and Robert Pollak, ``Bargaining and Distribution in Marriage,’ Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1996, 10(4), 139-158.

Esther Duflo, `Women Empowerment and Economic Development,’ Journal of Economic Literature 2012, 50(4), 1051-1079.

Female Autonomy and Property Rights (March 4,9)

Siwan Anderson and Mukesh Eswaran, `What Determines Female Autonomy? Evidence from Bangladesh,’ Journal of , 2009, 90, 179-191.

(P) , Erica Field and Jean Lee, `Household Bargaining and Excess Fertility: An Experimental Study in Zambia,’ American Economic Review, 2014, 104(7).

Siwan Anderson and Chris Bidner, `Property Rights Over Marital Transfers,’ Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2015, 1421-1484.

Siwan Anderson and Garance Genicot, `Suicide and Property Rights in India,’ Journal of Development Economics, 2015, 114, 64-78.

(P) Erica Field, Rohini Pande, Natalia Rigol, Simone Schaner and Charity Moore, `On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women’s Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms,’ working paper, 2020. https://cpb-us- w2.wpmucdn.com/campuspress.yale.edu/dist/7/2986/files/2020/10/z_FieldEtAl_FBA_Websites.p df

Son Preference (March 11)

(P) and Rohini Pande, `Why are Indian Children So Short? The Role of Birth Order and Son Preference,’ American Economic Review, 2017, 107(9), 2600-2629.

(P) Nancy Qian, `Missing Women and the Price of Tea in China,’ Quarterly Journal of Economics 123(3), 2008, 1251-1285.