Within this course you will cover key topics in development economics, in particular poverty, social protection, human capital, access to financial services, and income generating activities (labor, entrepreneurship, agriculture). In analyzing these topics, you will apply a variety of micro-economic theoretical tools and empirical methods using real-world case studies taken from around the developing world. We will consider what policies work to improve the well-being of vulnerable populations.
To do so, we will cover the current state of research applying micro-econometric techniques to evaluate the effects of policy interventions in areas ranging from education to social assistance, from agricultural technology adoption to access to credit and micro-enterprise growth.
Overview
Syllabus
- Poverty
- This module will enable you to gain a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted nature of development, exploring the evolution of poverty over time, acquiring the skills to measure poverty and appreciate essential features of the economic lives of the poor, mastering the concept of poverty traps.
- Social protection
- By the end of this module, you'll understand conditional cash transfers for poverty reduction and human capital investment, distinguishing between conditional and unconditional cash transfers and analyzing their respective behavioral effects. You will also acquire the ability to articulate the defining characteristics of the graduation approach and apply micro-econometric techniques to assess its impacts on household poverty and wellbeing.
- Human capital
- By the end of this module, you will understand key statistics on human capital in developing countries, assess the relationship between education and productivity, analyze barriers to academic achievement, and make policy recommendations to improve education for disadvantaged populations.
- Credit, savings, insurance
- By the end of this module, you'll understand the market failures that affect poor people's access to credit and analyze how different financial institutions address these constraints. You'll also evaluate the impact of microfinance and explore the demand for savings among the poor, including the use of mobile money. In addition, you'll understand the need for insurance in developing countries, identify market limitations, and evaluate strategies to improve insurance access for the poor.
- Labor, agriculture, entrepreneurship
- By the end of this module, you will be able to critically evaluate empirical findings related to rural-urban labor migration, micro-enterprise growth, and agricultural technology adoption, applying micro-economic theory to comprehend essential policy challenges, and gaining valuable insights into the primary income-generating activities in developing countries, including casual labor, micro-enterprises, and agriculture.
Taught by
Mattea Stein and Michele Giannola
