Development Economics

Catalog description

Development economics studies why some countries remain poor while others prosper, and what policies or institutions can help improve living standards in low-income settings. Over the last several decades, economists have developed theoretical frameworks and empirical tools to understand the fundamental frictions that limit growth—why credit and insurance markets fail, why technologies do not diffuse, why individuals underinvest in education or migration, and how these failures shape inequality and welfare. This course investigates these questions by combining economic theory with empirical evidence from both observational and experimental studies. We begin with a simple framework for thinking about the forces that drive development and the market imperfections that can slow it down. We then apply this framework to specific domains—credit and savings, technology adoption, labor markets, and mobility—to understand how these frictions interact and how policy can address them.