The goal of this course is to both understand the microeconomics underlying key international development issues and the tools researchers and policy-makers use to study these issues and to design related policy interventions. It focuses on both theoretical interpretation and empirical estimation of microeconomic models of individual, household, farm, market and non-market institutions that relate to a range of issues attracting both research and policy attention in the field.

The micro-level development issues considered in this course include

-    Poverty traps and welfare dynamics

-    Labour market productivity

-    Education

-    Health and nutrition

-    Intra-household resource allocation

-    Land and property rights

-    Risks, saving, credit and insurance

-    Agricultural productivity, technological diffusion and interlinked agrarian contracts

-    Environmental externalities in development

The course is designed for master- and PhD-level students with at least advanced undergraduate-level training in microeconomics and econometrics and an interest in advanced study and policy-oriented research in microeconomics of development.

On completion of the course, students will:

1. Be familiar with some of the key micro-level international development issues
2. Understand the microeconomic foundations and estimation techniques used to study these issues
3. Be able to apply these theoretical and empirical techniques to constructively analyse international development issues and design related policy interventions

In-class group presentation (10%), Constructive policy briefs (20%), Research assignment (30%), Final examination (40%)

3 hour lecture per week.

Students are expected to have completed a microeconomics course equivalent to ECON3101 or IDEC8016 and an econometric course at the level equivalent to IDEC8017 or EMET8005.

Advance undergraduate-level or graduate-level microeconomics and introductory level econometrics.

The primary textbook for this course is

Development Economics. D. Ray. Princeton University Press (1998)

This book, however, will not provide full reference of the material covered in this course. The course material will also draw on the following three books supplemented by journal articles, book chapters, and technical papers on the relevant issues.

Poor Economics: Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. A. Banerjee and E. Duflo. PublicAffairs (2011)

Understanding Poverty. A. Banerjee, R. Benabou and D. Mookherjee, editors. Oxford University Press (2006).

Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day. D. Collins, J. Morduch, S. Rutherford, and O. Ruthven. Princeton University Press (2009).

The required technology is already available at the Crawford School.