Advanced Development Economics

Lecture Themes and Reading List

Lecture 1: Growth and development
AP (Adrian Poignant)

• Tamura, Robert, Jerry Dwyer, John Devereux and Scott Baier. 2019. “Economic growth in the long run,” Journal of Development Economics 137: 1-35.
• Patel, Dev, Justin Sandefur and Arvind Subramanian. 2021. "The new era of unconditional convergence," Journal of Development Economics 152, pp. 1-18.
• Narayan, Ambar et al. 2022. "COVID-19 and economic inequality," Policy Research Working Paper #9902. The World Bank.

Lecture 2: Randomized Control Trials and Behavioural Economics: Applications in development
JV (Joseph Vecci)

• Banerjee, Duflo and Kremer (2019) The influence of randomized controlled trials on development economics research and development policy in The State of Economics, The State of the World, 2019, edited by Kaushik Basu, David Rosenblatt and Claudia Sepulveda, MIT Press. Pages 1-17. Available here https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/kremer/files/the-influence-of-rcts-on-developmental-economics-research-and-development-policy.pdf
• Banerjee, Chandrasekhar, Duflo and Jackson (2019) Using Gossips to Spread Information: Theory and Evidence from Two Randomized Controlled Trials. The Review of Economic Studies.

Lab 1: Evaluatin Development 
JV

Khadker, S., G. Koolwal and H. A. Samad (2009). “Handbook on Impact Evaluation”, World Bank. Available Online. Read chapter 1 and 2

Lecture 3: Poverty and Poverty Traps 
AP

• Balboni, Clare A., Oriana Bandiera, Robin Burgess, Maitreesh Ghatak and Anton Heil. 2021. "Why do people stay poor?" forthcoming in Quarterly Journal of Economics.
• Behrman, Jere R., Whitney Schott, Subha Mani, Benjamin T. Crookston, Kirk Dearden, Le Thuc Duc, Lia C. H. Fernald, and Aryeh D. Stein, "Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty and Inequality: Parental Resources and Schooling Attainment and Children’s Human Capital in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam," Economic Development and Cultural Change 65, no. 4 (July 2017): 657-697.

Lecture 4: The Psychology of Poverty

• Mani A., Mullainathan S., Shafir E., Zhao J. (2013). Poverty impedes cognitive function. Science. 341 976–980. 10.1126/science.1238041
• Kaur, Supreet, Sendhil Mullainathan, Suanna Oh, and Frank Schilbach (2019). “Does Financial Strain Lower Productivity?” Working Paper. Available here https://economics.mit.edu/files/16997

Lecture 6: Labor markets and labor productivity

• Bandiera, Oriana, Ahmed Elsayed, Andrea Smurra, and Céline Zipfel. 2022. "Young Adults and Labor Markets in Africa." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 36 (1): 81-100.
• McMillan, Margaret and Albert Zeufack. 2022. "Labor productivity growth and industrialization in Africa," Journal of Economic Perspectives 36, pp. 3-32.

Lecture 7: Capital (mis)allocation in developing countries

• Hsieh C & Klenow PJ (2009). “Misallocation and manufacturing TFP in China and India,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 124:1403–1448.
• David, Joel M., Venky Venkateswaran, Ana Paula Cusolito and Tatiana Didier (2021). ”Capital allocation in developing countries,” The World Bank Economic Review 1102-1121.
• McKenzie, David (2017). “Identifying and Spurring High-Growth Entrepreneurship: Experimental Evidence from a Business Plan Competition,” American Economic Review 107(8): 2278-2307.

Lecture 8: Credit Market Imperfections 

• Supriya Garikipati, Susan Johnson, Isabelle Guérin & Ariane Szafarz (2017) Microfinance and Gender: Issues, Challenges and The Road Ahead, The Journal of Development Studies, 53:5, 641-648, DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2016.1205736
• Banerjee, A, E. Duflo. and Glennerster R., (2015), “The Miracle of Microfinance? Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation”, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 7, 22–53.

Lab 2: Entrepreneurship and capital allocation

Lecture 9: Aid and Development

• Nunn, Nathan and Qian, Nancy. 2014. “US Food Aid and Civil Conflict”, American Economic Review 2014, 104(6): 1630–1666
• M.A. Clemens, S. Radelet, R.R. Bhavnani, S. Bazzi (2012) Counting chickens when they hatch: The short term effect of aid on growth, The Economic Journal, 122, pp. 590–617

Lecture 10: Institutions

• Acemoglu, Daron, Suresh Naidu, Pascual Restrepo, and James A. Robinson. (2019). “Democracy Does Cause Growth”, Journal of Political Economy, 127(1), 47-100
• Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson. (2004). “Institutions as the Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth”, NBER No.10481

Lecture 11: Political Economy: Ethnic and Social Division

• Blouin, Arthur, and Sharun W. Mukand. (2019). “Erasing Ethnicity? Propaganda, Nation Building and Identity in Rwanda”, Journal of Political Economy, 127(3), 1008-1062.
• Hjort, Jonas. (2014). “Ethnic Divisions and Production in Firms”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1899-1946.