Global Economic Development (73-425)

Syllabus

Project Guideline

Readings

(R): Required (S): Suggested

Week 1: Growth and Development: Introduction

Thursday 1/19

• (R) The Economist: Roots of development
• (R) Weil: Chapter 1
• (S) Lucas: Introduction
• (S) Ray: Chapters 1 and 2

Week 2: Wealth of Nations (1)

Tuesday 1/24

• (R) Hall and Jones: Why do some countries produce so much more output than others

Thursday 1/26

• (S) Lucas: Making a miracle
• (S) Chari, Kehoe and McGrattan: The poverty of nations: a quantitative investigation
• (S) Anchorena: A macro model with destructive effort
• (S) Anchorena: The mechanics of economic development: simulations

Week 3: Wealth of Nations (2)

Tuesday 1/31

• (R) Parente and Prescott: A unified theory of evolution of international income levels Chern Yih will briefly present this paper on Tuesday (20 minutes). Everybody should read it and comment on the presentation.
• (R) Interview to Paul Romer

Thursday 2/2

• (R) Easterly: National policies and economic growth: A reappraisal

Week 4: Inequality: Past and Future

Tuesday 2/7

• (R) NIC: Trends 2020
• (R) Lucas: Some macroeconomics for the 21st. century

Thursday 2/9

• (R) The economist and Inequality (1)
• (R) The economist and Inequality (2)
• (R) The economist and Inequality (3)
• (R) Sala i Martin: The disturbing "rise" of global inequality

Week 5: Demographics

Tuesday 2/14

• (R) The economist and demographics (1)
• (R) The economist and demographics (2)
• (R) The economist and demographics (3)
• (R) Galor: The demographic transition and the emergence of sustained economic growth

Thursday 2/16

• (R) Amartya Sen on Population
• (R) Bloom et al: Economic growth and the demographic transition

Week 6: Simulations

Tuesday 2/21

• (R) Anchorena: Household size and productivity

Thursday 2/23

• (R) Anchorena: The mechanics of economic development: simulations (2)

Week 7: Social and Economic Mobility

Tuesday 2/28

• (R) The economist and social mobility
• (R) NYT and social mobility Take a look at these graphs.
• (R) Stokey: Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves
• (R) Solon: Intergenerational Mobility Diego Vargas will present the last two papers.

Thursday 3/2

• (S) Becker and Tomes: Rise and Fall of Families
• (S) Borjas: Mobility of Immigrants

week 8: Financial development (1)

Tuesday 3/7

• (R) Mishkin: Is financial globalization beneficial?
• (R) Valderrama: Financial development and Growth (S) Ross Levine: Finance and Growth

Thursday 3/9

• (R) Rajan and Zingales: Great Reversal There will be a reading test on this (aprox. 25 minutes).

Week 9: Financial development (2)

Tuesday 3/21

• (S) Fisman and Love: Financial Development and Intersectoral Allocation
• (S) Rajan and Zingales: Financial Dependence and Growth

Thursday 3/23

• (R) Guiso et al: Social Capital and Financial Development

Week 10: Economics of war

Tuesday 3/28

• (R) The Economist and war (1)
• (R) The Economist and war (2)
• (R) Stiglitz and Bilmes: The costs of Iraq war
• (R) Murphy et al: On Iraq War

Thursday 3/30

• (R) Miguel et al: Economic shocks and civil conflict
• (S) Hirshleifer: Appeasement: Can it work
• (S) Hirshleifer: The technology of conflict as an economic activity

Week 11: Division of Labor and Specialization

Tuesday 4/4

• (R) The economist and specialization
• (R) The economist and the division of labor
• (R) Adam Smith on the Division of Labor Read Chapters I, II and III of Book I.
• (S) Rosen: Specialization and human capital

Thursday 4/6

• (R) Becker and Murphy: The Division of Labor, Coordination Costs, and Knowledge
• (S) Galor: Trade and the Great Divergence: The Family Connection
• (S) Davis: The division of labor and the growth of government

Week 12: Institutions?

Tuesday 4/11

• (R) The Economist and Institutions (1)
• (R) The Economist and Institutions (2)
• (R) Rodrik: Getting institutions right
• (R) North: Institutions Chern presents
• (S) Rodrik et al: Institutions Rule
• (S) Glaeser et al: Do institutions cause growth?

Thursday 4/13

• (R) Sokoloff and Engerman: History Lessons Diego presents
• (S) Acemoglu et al: Institutions as the fundamental cause of economic growth
• (S) Acemoglu et al: The colonial origins of comparative development

Week 13

Tuesday 4/18: Regulation

• (R) The economist: Regulation in America
• (R) The economist: Regulation and business
• (S) Shleifer: The regulatory state
• (R) Shleifer: Understanding regulation Jason presents
• (S) Mulligan and Shleifer: The supply of regulation

Week 14

Tuesday 4/25: Politics and Economics

• (R) The economist: Politics and economics in China
• (R) The economist: Democracy and development
• (S) Shleifer et al: Dictatorship and disorder
• (R) Blanchard et al: China vs Rusia Yihang presents

Thursday 4/27: Growth strategies

• (R) Rodrik: Growth policies Ai Qi presents
• (S) Rodrik: Growth strategies

Tuesday 5/2: Reading test

Thursday 5/4: Putting everything together

Class Slides

• #1: 1/17
• #2: 1/19
• #3: 1/24
• #4: 1/26
• #5: 1/31
• #6: 2/2
• #7: 2/7
• #8: 2/9
• #9: 2/14
• #10: 2/16
• #11: 2/21
• #12: 2/23
• #13: 2/28
• #14: 3/2
• #15: 3/7
• #16: 3/9 A Solution for Reading Test #1
• #17: 3/21
• #18: 3/23
• #19: 3/28
• #20: 3/30
• #21: 4/4
• #22: 4/6
• #23: 4/11
• #24: 4/13
• #25: 4/18
• #26: 4/25
• #27: 4/27
• #28: 5/2 A solution for Reading Test #2
• #29: 5/4