The goal of this course is to understand the microeconomics underlying key international development problems and the tools researchers use to study them 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 researchers and policy makers.

The course has two main components. The first is a series of lectures on theoretical and empirical techniques used by researchers in development microeconomics. The second is a series of discussions on some concrete empirical studies of development policies taken from high quality research around the world. Both components will be interwoven for each and every development issue considered, giving students ample opportunity to learn the foundations and directly apply them to constructively analyse the real-world policy design. 

Course prerequisites: A microeconomics course equivalent to ECON3101 or IDEC8016 and an econometrics course equivalent to IDEC8017. Contact the course lecturer if you are unsure whether you have the necessary prerequisites.

On completion of the course, students will be able to

1. Understand the microeconomic foundations and estimation techniques used to study some of the key development problems
2. Apply these techniques to constructively analyse and design related policy interventions
3. Design high quality research in development microeconomics

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

4 hour lecture per week.

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

The primary textbook for this course is

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

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.

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

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.