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ECON-UA 323: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Spring 2023

COURSE INFORMATION

ECON-323 is a semester-long course that evaluates theories of economic (under)development and scrutinizes empirical evidence in order to understand key features of the development process across countries. There are three overarching themes for the course: (i) developing analytical frameworks for understanding big-picture questions for economic development; (ii) describing how to measure causal relationships in data, and, most importantly, (iii) connecting theory and development to be able to guide policy.

Course Assistant:

Jin Liu ([email protected])

Office Hours:

My office hours are Mondays, 2:00-4:00. My office is 728, 19 West 4th Street.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING

General requirements

There are two lectures per week, I hope that you will come to class, but I will not take attendance (in fact, please do not come to class if you are feeling sick). You do not need to email me in advance if you can’t make class. I will post my slides online after the lecture. Please do the readings before class.

There will be two guest lectures from PhD students presenting their research, I haven’t scheduled those yet. There will be no readings for those weeks, but I will ask about the material on the final exam.

Prerequisites

Economics: You should have taken two semesters each of micro and macro, and be comfortable with the concepts covered in those courses.

Statistics/Econometrics: You should have a basic understanding of data analysis. You should be comfortable reading regression tables, and have used R (or an equivalent program) before.

Some students take this class concurrently with a prerequisite (most often econometrics), which I do not recommend (though it is allowed).

Grading rubric

The major assignments in this course are a midterm and a final paper. Students sometimes fail to show off their skills and knowledge in exam settings. As a result, the course grade will (automatically) be the higher of the  following  two  options,  conditional  on  you  satisfactorily  completing all of your  problem  sets  (no exceptions).

Rubric A (Default)

•   6 Bi-weekly assignments (20%)

•   Midterm (35%)

•   Final Exam (10%)

Final Paper (35%)

Rubric B

•   6 Bi-weekly assignments (25%)

•   Midterm (15%)

•   Final Exam (10%)

Final Paper (50%)

Assignments and exams

The assignments and exams will test your understanding of concepts covered in lectures and in the readings, and your ability to apply these insights to policy situations. More or less every other week, you will hand in a short assignment. The assignments will be a combination of short essays, data analysis, and standard problem sets. I am not planning to assign you busy work, and hope that in exchange you take the assignments I do give you seriously. Some of the problem sets are harder than the others, I will flag that in advance in class. You must type your problem sets, and upload them to Brightspace before the start of class.

I strongly recommend using Overleaf to type your problem sets, since typing equations in Word or Google Dogs is a slog. The problem sets will be graded on a scale of: check+, check, check-. You can work with others on the problem sets, but write up your own answers (and note who you worked with).

The midterm will  cover both  the readings  and  lectures  as well  as  conceptually  similar material.  I  am optimistic that most if not all of you will be able to take the exam in person. I am not planning on offering a remote midterm option, we will have a make-up date for those who can’t physically come to class.

The final exam will be in class on May 4th . I will give you a paper (that wasn’t covered in class) for you to read, summarize, and discuss. One of the problem sets will be in the exact same format so that you can practice. I will also ask about the guest lectures.

The final paper should be handed in on May 5th. However, I am not going to start grading them until May 12th at 1pm (NYC time). So as long as you hand it in before then, I won’t notice (you don’t need to ask for permission for an extension). That said, no additional extensions will be given. You must hand in a hard copy (in class, in my office, or in my mailbox) and submit a pdfon Brightspace.

READING LIST INFORMATION

The textbook for the class is Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. New copies cost less than $20, (and under $10 on an e-reader). The book can also be accessed online via the NYU Librarieswebsite for free. For those of you interested in learning more of the methods, the syllabus gives reference to Mastering 'Metrics: The Path from Cause to Effect , by Josh Angrist and Jörn-Steffen Pischke. New copies cost around $25, and it is not required. I will also assign

readings from academic articles, which should be available online. Please let me know if any of the links I provided no longer work.

ELIGIBILITY

Any NYU student who wants to take the class is welcome to do so, although it is targeted towards economics majors who have already completed their core coursework in micro, macro, and metrics.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Students are encouraged to work together and discuss class material and assignments, ideally in groups of no more than three or four people. That said, any exam, paper or assignment you submit should be your own original  work.  If  (when)  you  use  words  or  ideas  written  by  others,  please  make  sure  to  cite  them appropriately.1   For the assignments, please indicate other students with whom you have collaborated. More information about NYU’s policies on academic integrity may be found athttp://www.nyu.edu/about/policies-

guidelines-compliance/policies-and-guidelines/academic-integrity-for-students-at-nyu.html.

IMPORTANT DATES AND COURSE STRUCTURE (tentative)

Day

Date

Topic

1

Tue

Jan 24

Course Introduction

2

Thu

Jan 26

The Evolution of Thought on Poverty Reduction, Development and Growth

3

Tue

Jan 31

Theories of Growth

4

Thu

Feb 2

Empirics of Growth

5

Tue

Feb 7

Case Study: The Industrial Revolution and its Spread

Assignment #1 Due

6

Thu

Feb 9

Resource (Mis)Allocation and Household Productivity

7

Tue

Feb 14

Economic Exchange, Trade and Efficiency

Assignment #2 Due

8

Thu

Feb 16

Human Capital: Health- Poverty Trap Application to Nutrition and Productivity

9

Tue

Feb 21

Brief Discussion of Modern Empirical Analysis in Development Economics

10

Thu

Feb 23

Human Capital:  Health Returns

11

Tue

Feb 28

Human Capital: Returns to Education

Assignment #3 Due

12

Thu

Mar 2

Human Capital: Investment Decisions

13

Tue

Mar 7

Midterm Review

14

Thu

Mar 9

Midterm

15

Tue

Mar 21

Financial Capital: Returns to Capital and Financial Access

16

Thu

Mar 23

Financial Capital: Insurance

17

Tue

Mar 28

Financial Capital: Savings Accumulation

Assignment #4 Due

18

Thu

Mar 30

Behavioral Insights for individual decision-making

19

Tue

Apr 4

Culture and Norms: An application to Gender

20

Thu

Apr 6

Governance and Individual Investments: Public Sector

21

Tue

Apr 11

Productivity Growth: Learning

Assignment #5 Due

22

Thu

Apr 13

Environment

23

Tue

Apr 18

Productivity Growth: Coordination Failures

D$

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24

Thu

Apr 20

Migration

25

Tue

Apr 25

Final Paper Discussion

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26

Thu

Apr 27

TBD

2