Syllabus Winter 2019: PPHA 57300 Economic Development and Policy Monday 2pm-4.50pm Version updated: Dec 31st 2018 (Readings on syllabus (click here to be brought to that section) will be updated during the quarter. Latest version can be found on canvas here) Instructor: Amir Jina email: [email protected] office: 2067 Teaching assistant: Jenna Allard Course Materials: (1) Course slides posted weekly on Canvas (2) Required text: - “Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty” by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo This is the only book you are required to buy, and is available in the campus bookstore (or any bookstore). (3) Readings for each week on this syllabus Course Objective: The history, current pattern, and causes of the distribution of the wealth of nations remains one of the most fascinating and fundamental of all questions in economics and policy. This course will attempt to give an overview of economic growth and development, focusing on real-world data, by looking at the empirical and theoretical research that has been used to understand them and subsequently form the basis of development policies. The course is divided into three major sections: measuring and modeling growth and development, human capital, and markets. Throughout the quarter, we’ll explore sets of “development facts” – the way that the world currently appears to us as policy-makers – by looking at contemporary data. For each topic, we will attempt to incorporate and discuss contemporary debates in development thinking. Class Preparation: Class preparation will primarily involve reading the required materials for each class before class on Monday. As we have only one class per week, there will often be many readings and I’d encourage you to pace yourself throughout the week to get through these. Each week will require approximately 100 pages of reading. Readings marked with ‘**’ are required readings. Please come to class having read all required readings and as many of the other readings as you can. Any of these may be the subject of classroom discussions, and each of you is expected to join in classroom discussions and debates. In addition, each week you will be required to submit a “data visualization” that you find during your exploration of contemporary facts about development. More details will be given on this requirement during class. Software: This course will require you to follow lectures and complete assignments using any statistical software, with a particular emphasis on STATA or R. Stata is available on the computers in the Harris School Computer Lab and on the student servers. Students wishing to purchase Stata may do so through the University at a substantial discount. Stata SE is $235 for a one-year license; $395 for a perpetual license. R was, is, and always will be free. Course Grading and Evaluation Here is a breakdown of the grading for the course 50% Homework assignments 15% Mid-term country profile 25% Final policy brief 10% Participation and visualization submission There will be 5 homework assignments, weekly visualization submissions, and two longer assignments taking the form of policy briefs. Details on due dates and requirements will be provided shortly. Re-Grades Any item for which there is a re-grade request must be done within 7 days after we return the assignment or exam to you. The request for re-grade MUST be done in writing and attached to the assignment. In such cases, we will re-grade the whole assignment– not just the question you identified. As a result, your grade may be lower. Communication Communication from instructors to students will happen through posting of materials on Canvas and a weekly class email sent through Canvas. Emailing me directly is likely to be the least efficient way to communicate about the class, with office hours generally preferable. Questions regarding scheduling, class materials, or assignments should be directed to Jenna Allard, who will be your TA for the quarter. Recitations / TA session: Each week, Jenna will dedicate formal instruction time through the weekly recitation. You must attend the recitation session. Sessions will cover material from class in more depth, and allow time for discussion and debate of materials and readings. In the event of holidays or university closures, a TA session may be used as a main class. Office Hours: Each week, there will be instructor and TA office hours for additional instruction. Amir: TBA Jenna: TBA Stata and R Support Bar: The Harris School has dedicated additional resources for teaching programming in R and Stata through the Stata and R support bars. Tutoring If you would like to employ a tutor for additional instruction, please contact your academic advisor or the Assistant Director for Student Affairs, Jen Lombardo ([email protected]). Detailed syllabus and readings NOTE: Required readings are indicated with a ‘**’ before their entry. Other readings are optional, and will either be referred to in class or provide extra background / detail on a topic. Part I: Measuring and modeling economic development (weeks 1-4) 1) Where we are and how we got here: a picture of development around the world (plus class introduction) Topics: Development around the world; Development Facts; GDP PPP, etc; Convergence and Divergence; Industrial revolution and the great divergence; History of development; Development policy thought through time; Solow-Swan model; a. **Maddison, Angus. The world economy volume 1: A millennial perspective volume 2: Historical statistics. Academic Foundation, 2007. Introduction & Chapter 1 b. **Pritchett, Lant. "Divergence, Big Time." The Journal of Economic Perspectives 11, no. 3 (1997): 3-17. i. Blog: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2018/10/convergence -big-time.html c. Henderson, J. Vernon, Adam Storeygard, and David N. Weil. "Measuring economic growth from outer space." American economic review 102, no. 2 (2012): 994-1028. 2) Economic development, factor allocation, and structural change Topics: Alternatives to GDP: HDI, SDGs, etc; Endogenous growth; AK Model; Growth accounting; Factor allocation; TFP; Structural change; Lewis two-sector model; Comparative advantage; Trade; Internal and international migration; a. **Romer, Paul, “Economic Growth” in The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Available at: https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/EconomicGrowth.html b. **Jones, Charles I., and Paul M. Romer. "The new Kaldor facts: ideas, institutions, population, and human capital." American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 2, no. 1 (2010): 224-45. c. **Rodrik, Dani. "Growth strategies." Handbook of economic growth 1 (2005): 967-1014. Sections 1-4 e. **Stiglitz, Joseph, “The Post-Washington Consensus Consensus”, in Serra, Narcís, and Joseph E. Stiglitz. 2008. The Washington Consensus reconsidered: towards a new global governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press. f. Jones, Charles I. "The facts of economic growth." In Handbook of macroeconomics, vol. 2, pp. 3-69. Elsevier, 2016. g. Murphy, Kevin M., Andrei Shleifer, and Robert W. Vishny. "Industrialization and the big push." Journal of political economy 97, no. 5 (1989): 1003-1026. h. Casson, Mark, and John S. Lee. "The origin and development of markets: A business history perspective." Business History Review 85, no. 1 (2011): 9-37. 3) Measuring and modeling poverty Topics: LDCs; Industrial policy; Poverty lines and headcounts; Inequality and distribution of wealth; Gini index; Poverty trap / multiple equilibria models; Psychology of poverty; Ethics, equity, sustainability; International aid; a) **Banerjee and Duflo, Chapter 1 b) **Banerjee, Abhijit V., and Esther Duflo. "The economic lives of the poor." Journal of economic perspectives 21, no. 1 (2007): 141-168. c) **Robinson, James A. "Industrial Policy and Development: A Political Economy Perspective." (2009). d) **Kraay, Aart, and David McKenzie. "Do poverty traps exist? Assessing the evidence." Journal of Economic Perspectives 28, no. 3 (2014): 127-48. e) **Banerjee, Abhijit, Esther Duflo, Nathanael Goldberg, Dean Karlan, Robert Osei, William Parienté, Jeremy Shapiro, Bram Thuysbaert, and Christopher Udry. "A multifaceted program causes lasting progress for the very poor: Evidence from six countries." Science 348, no. 6236 (2015): 1260799. f) **Pritchett, Lant. "Alleviating Global Poverty: Labor Mobility, Direct Assistance, and Economic Growth." (2018). g) Ray, Debraj “Development Economics” in Palgrave Dictionary of Economics: http://www.econ.nyu.edu/user/debraj/Papers/RayPalgrave.pdf h) Rodrik, Dani. "Industrial policy for the twenty-first century." (2004). https://drodrik.scholar.harvard.edu/publications/industrial-policy-twenty-first- century i) Deaton, Angus. "Measuring poverty in a growing world (or measuring growth in a poor world)." Review of Economics and statistics 87, no. 1 (2005): 1-19. j) Marx, Benjamin, Thomas Stoker, and Tavneet Suri. "The economics of slums in the developing world." Journal of Economic Perspectives 27, no. 4 (2013): 187- 210. k) Banerjee, Abhijit V., and Esther Duflo. "Growth theory through the lens of development economics." Handbook of economic growth 1 (2005): 473-552. Part II: Human Capital (weeks 5-7) 4) Demographics and nutrition Topics: Demographic transition; Fertility; Family planning; Population momentum; Engel’s law; Nutrition interventions; Macro- and micro-nutrients; Nutrition traps; Household economies a) **Banerjee and Duflo, Chapter 2 b) **Subramanian, Shankar, and Angus Deaton. "The demand for food and calories." Journal