The course, which is divided into two different modules, provides a broad overview of the main current topics in the development economics literature.

The first module is taught by Professor Pedro Vicente, Associate Professor at Nova SBE and the Scientific Director of NOVAFRICA. His research focuses on the political economy of development with a special interest in Africa. He designed and conducted field experiments in Mozambique, Nigeria, and Sao Tome and Principe. He holds a Licenciatura in Economics from Catolica-Lisbon, a M.Sc. in Economics from the LSE, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from the University of Chicago

The first module will discuss some of the main current topics in the development economics literature, with a strong emphasis on the political economy of development. After a brief methodological overview, the course will discuss poverty traps and foreign aid effectiveness. Natural resources and ethnic divisions will then be studied. Good institutions will be portrayed as improving development. The course will then examine democracy and corruption. The remaining is devoted to assessing governance interventions.

The second module is taught by Dr. Alex Armand. He is a Resident Fellow at the Navarra Center for International Development and a Research Associate of the Center for Evaluation of Development Policies at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, London. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University College London.

The second module is composed in two parts. In the first part, the course will focus on the relationship between human capital and development, looking at education and health issues. The second part will focus on main econometric methods employed by development economists to design and evaluate the impact of development programs.

PROGRAM:

First module:

            1. Foreign aid to help poor countries?

            2. Why bother? Curses

                        Natural Resources

                        Ethnic divisions

            3. Democracy?

                        Some theory

                        Elections everywhere, but they are stolen

            4. Corruption

            5. What to do on the ground?

                        How to Improve governance

Second module:

            1. Human Capital

                        Health

                        Education

                        Social programs devoted to health and education.

            2. Methodologies for program evaluation of development programs

                        Selection                    

                        Randomization

                        Difference-in-differences and Fixed Effects

                        Regression Discontinuity

Monday  9:00-11:00 and 15:00-17:00

Tuesday 9:00-13:00 

Wednesday 9:00-13:00