G6303 Graduate Development
Cristian “Kiki” Pop-Eleches
e-mail: cp2124@columbia.edu
Spring 2006
501A
Tuesday
Office Hours: Tuesday:
or by appointment, please email or stop by 1402C IAB
Course description: This course examines the micro-economic development literature, with an emphasis on empirical applications.
Recommended background readings
Ray [1998] – a great undergraduate level textbook
Deaton [1997] – a must have for those interested in empirical development
Course Requirements and Grading
I expect you to have read the papers we will discuss in class and participate actively in the discussion.
1. Weekly 1-2 page responses on the reading (to be emailed to the whole class by Monday 6pm) – 36% (12*3)
2. Power Point Presentation 20 %: One research project outline (7 pages maximum) to be presented in the last day of class.
3. Final exam 30% (closed book, 2 hours).
4. Class and seminar participation (14%).
You are required to attend the Development Seminar (the
schedule is posted at http://www.earth.columbia.edu/cgsd/developmentfall2005.html),
which meets on Mondays,
Prerequisites: Core knowledge of microeconomic and
econometrics at the graduate level
Lecture 1 (January 17) Introduction
- to the course
- to the field of development
- to data
-
Lecture 2 (January 24) – Nutrition
***Subramanian, Shankar and Angus Deaton (1996), "The Demand for Food and Calories," Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 104 (1), pp 133-62.
***Duncan, Thomas et. al (2003),
"Iron deficiency and the well-being of
older adults:Early results from a randomized nutrition intervention"
(http://emlab.berkeley.edu
*Strauss (1996) JPE “Does Better Nutrition Raise Farm Productivity?”
*Strauss, John and Duncan Thomas (1995), "Human
Resources: Empirical Modeling of Household and Family Decisions." In Behrman, Jere
and T.N. Srinivasan, eds., Handbook of Development
Economics, Volume 3.
* Srinivasan, T. N. (1994), "Destitution: A Discourse," Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 32 (4), pp. 1842-55.
* Dasgupta, Partha and Debraj Ray (1986), "Inequality as a Determinant of Malnutrition and Unemployment: Theory," The Economic Journal, Vol. 96 (384), pp. 1011-1034.
Lecture 3 (January 31) – Health
*** Gertler, Paul, and Jonathan Gruber (2002) "Insuring Consumption Against Illness," American Economic Review, 92 (1): 51-70.
(http://www.iadb.org/res/files/SocialPolicy2/Papers/AER_GertlerGruber.pdf)
***Miguel, Edward and Michael Kremer (2001), "
(http://papers.nber.org/papers/w8481.pdf)
***Duflo, Esther (2000), “Child
Health and Household Resources in
(http://econ-www.mit.edu/faculty/download_pdf.php?id=446)
Lecture 4 (February 7) – Fertility
*** Pritchett, Lant “Desired Fertility and the Impact of Population Policies. Population and Development Review, Vol.20 (no.1), March 1994.
(http://are.berkeley.edu/~barham/ARE298/Readings/Pritchett1.pdf)
Comments and Replies on the above article (these are short):
***Knowles J.K, J.S Akin, P.K. Guilkey (1994). "The Impact of Population Policies: Comment" in Population Development Review, 20(3), pp.611-615.
(http://are.berkeley.edu/~barham/ARE298/Readings/Pritchett4.pdf)
***Bongaarts, John (1994). "The Impact of Population Policies: Comment" in Population Development Review, 20(3), pp.616-620.
(http://are.berkeley.edu/~barham/ARE298/Readings/Pritchett3.pdf)
***Pritchett, Lant H. (1994). "The Impact of Population Policies: Reply" in Population and Development Review, 20(3), pp 621-630.
(http://are.berkeley.edu/~barham/ARE298/Readings/Pritchett2.pdf)
*** Pop-Eleches, Cristian, “The Supply of Birth Control
Methods, Education and Fertility: Evidence from
(http://www.columbia.edu/~cp2124/papers/fertility_latest.pdf)
* Becker, Gary S. and H. Gregg Lewis. 1973. ”On the Interaction between the Quantity and Quality of Children,” Journal of Political Economy, Mar.-Apr., 81:2 (Part II), pp. S279-S288.
Lecture 5 (February 14) – Family and Children
*** Udry, Christopher (1996), "Gender, Agricultural Production, and the Theory of the Household," Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 104 (5), pp. 1010-1045.
*** Black, Devereux and Salvanes (2005), “The More
the Merrier? The
Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Children’s Education”
http://www.econ.ucla.edu
*** Garg, Ashish
and Jonathan Morduch (1998), "Sibling Rivalry
and the Gender Gap: Evidence from Child Health Outcomes in
(http://www.springerlink.com/media/99alqkuqwgwcgrykklby/Contributions/L/B/E/R/LBERMXK1LY7P1CWC.pdf)
Lecture 6 (February 21) –
Institutions
*** Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson (2001) “The Colonial
Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation,” American Economic
Review, volume 91, No. 5, 1369-1401.
(http://econ-www.mit.edu/faculty/acemoglu/files/papers/origins_aerfinal.pdf)
*** Banerjee, Abhijit and Lakshmi Iyer, (2002), “History, Institutions and Economic
Performance: The Legacy of Colonial Land Tenure Systems in India.” mimeo.
(http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID321721_code020813510.pdf?abstractid=321721 )
* Knack, Steven and Philip Keefer (1995) “Institutions and Economic Performance:
Cross-Country Tests Using Alternative Measures,” Economics and Politics, 7, 207-
227.
* Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson and James Robinson (2002): “Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution” Quarterly Journal of Economics, volume 107, pp. 1231-1294.
Lecture 7 (February 28) – Regulation
*** Djankov, R. La Porta, and F. Lopez-de-Silanes and A. Shleifer (2002) ” The Regulation of Entry”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, February, 2002.
(http://post.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/shleifer/papers/regulation_June_2001.pdf)
*** Timothy Besley and Robin
Burgess (2004),”Can Labor Regulation Hinder Economic Performance? Evidence from
(http://econ.lse.ac.uk/staff/rburgess/wp/indreg.pdf)
Lecture 8 (March 7) – Guest Lecture – Education (Leigh Linden)
No Lecture (March 14 NO CLASS – SPRING BREAK)
Lecture 9 (March 21) – Credit & Savings
*** Burgess, Robin And Rohini
Pande(2003),
"Do Rural Banks Matter? Evidence from the Indian Social
Banking Experiment," mimeo, Yale.
(http://www.econ.yale.edu/%7Erp269/website/dobanksmatterjune20.pdf)
*** Morduch,
Jonathan (1999), "The Microfinance Promise," Journal of Economic
Literature, Vol. 37 (4), pp. 1569-1614.
(http://www.eurofakultetas.vu.lt/Materials/DEco/Morduch%20Microfinance.pdf)
***Aportela, Fernando (1998) 'The effects of financial access on savings by low-income people.' Mimeo, MIT
(http://www.lacea.org/meeting2000/FernandoAportela.pdf)
* Pitt, Mark and Shahidur
Khandker (1998), "The Impact of Group-based
Credit Programs on Poor Households in Bangladesh
Lecture 10 (March 28) & Lecture 11 (April 4) – Savings, Risk and Insurance, Consumption Smoothing
***Paxson, Christina (1992), “Using Weather Variability to Estimate the Response of Savings to Transitory Income in Thailand,American Economic Review 82: 15-33.
***Morduch, Jonathan (1995), "Income Smoothing and Consumption Smoothing,Journal of Economic Perspectives 9(3), Summer, pp. 103-114.
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0895-3309%28199522%299%3A3%3C103%3AISACS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8&origin=bc
***Murdoch, Jonathan, “Risk, Production, and Saving: Theory and Evidence from Indian Households
* Townsend, Robert (1994) “Risk and Insurance in Village
*Ravallion, Martin and Shubham Chaudhuri (1997), “Risk
and Insurance in Village
Lecture 12 (April 11) – HIV/AIDS and ORPHANS
*** Anne Case and Cally
Ardington “The impact of parental death on
school enrollment and achievement: Longitudinal evidence from
(http://www.wws.princeton.edu/%7Erpds/downloads/case_ardington_parentaldeath.pdf)
*** Evans, Dave and Ted Miguel
(2004), “Orphans and Schooling in
(http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~dkevans/papers/orphans_29nov04.pdf)
*Akresh
Richard (2004), “Adjusting Household Structure: School Enrollment Impacts of
Child Fostering in
(http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID614482_code199490.pdf?abstractid=614482&mirid=1)
Lecture 13 and Lecture 14 (April 18 and April 25) -
Student presentations