Advanced Development Economics

This is a PhD course open to Master students. This course introduces students to core issues in development economics, drawing from both theoretical and empirical research. Topics include labor markets, credit markets, behavioral biases, gender, norms, firms and migration. We also explore how individuals and organizations make decisions to deploy scarce resources, particularly in the presence of market failures. Lectures focus on recent theoretical and empirical work evaluating programs and behavioral policy designs aimed at alleviating constraints faced by individuals, firms and the state. The papers provide applications of a range of empirical approaches, including experimental, quasi-experimental, and structural methods. The course also aims to equip students with the tools needed to develop their own empirical research at the frontier of economics.