Advanced Development Economics - Micro Aspects

This course covers the microeconomics of development with focus on approaches to understanding the behavior of households and firms, and the functioning of markets and institutions in developing countries. Since development is a field with a strong empirical tradition, most of the course is centered on discussing and evaluating the empirical strategies used in the literature. Moreover, the course will also (via exercises) provide students with an opportunity for “hands-on” experience, as results in selected readings are replicated (and criticized) using appropriate software packages.

Key topics in the course include:

1. Poverty and inequality,
2. Agriculture and livelihoods,
3. Risk, insurance, and climate change,
4. Credit and microfinance,
5. Land markets and property rights,
6. Jobs, labor market and migration,
7. Health and nutrition,
8. Education and skills,
9. Illicit flows, informality, and corruption,
10. State capacity and armed conflicts.

The course will therefore:

• Provide the students with a critical overview of the recent literature and important debates within the micro aspects of economic development.
• Provide insight into methodological issues that arises when doing research on microeconomics of development. The emphasis will be on how theoretical microeconomic hypotheses may be tested with data and how to identify causal relationships. One aim is through exercises to gain insight into what makes a good empirical study.

• Provide students with a “hands-on” experience on how to replicate empirical results using relevant econometric software. This will hopefully prepare students for original independent empirical research and help identify possible interesting thesis topics.