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Syllabus
Economics 426
Fall 2013
Carnegie 304
Instructor: Amy Damon
E-mail: adamon@macalester.edu
Office Phone: 696-6862 (office)
Skype name: amydamon1
Office Hours: Most Wednesdays 10-11:30am - changes will be announced in class. Please feel free to
email me anytime.
Course Description:
In this class we will study the economics of development in low-income countries from a number of
perspectives and approaches. We will cover topics such as economic growth, income and resource
inequality, poverty, nutrition, rural and urban labor markets, credit markets, and land markets as they relate
to development. This course will take both a theoretical and empirical approach to development problems,
allowing students to get their hands dirty working with datasets from low-income countries, and applying
economic theory to problems of development. While policy questions are not the central theme of this
course, we will, of course, keep an eye toward the relevance and applicability to policy of the topics we
cover.
Course Objectives:
To learn to use economic concepts to analyze and model development problems.
Apply econometric methods to development problems and estimate relationships between, for
instance, income, inequality, and growth.
Critically analyze development economics research.
Prerequisites:
This course applies and expands on primarily microeconomic and econometric concepts. Students should
have taken microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics. Students should be relatively
comfortable using Stata.
Required Text:
(1) Development Economics, 1998. Debraj Ray. Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey.
(2) Poor Economics, 2011. Abhiji Banerjee & Esther Duflo. Public Affairs Press, New York.
Class Requirements and Grading: Grades will be based on the following assignments and activities:
1. 3 problem sets & writing assignments (20%): These problem sets will integrate theory and data
over different topics, and may require you to critically analyze a piece of development economics
research. You will be given one week to complete each problem set. Further, intermediate term-
paper assignments will be counted toward your homework grade. Four assignments, from
literature review to data analysis, will each count for 25 points of one homework assignment. At
the end of the term you will have 4 homework grades (3 problem sets and a term paper draft
grade).
2. Article summaries (5%): Each week you will be responsible to answer a number of questions
about an article (marked by *** on the schedule). You must upload your response to Moodle by
12:00pm on Monday of the class. These will be graded on a 0/1 basis. Some exam questions will
3. Midterm examination (20%): A midterm will be given in order to assess your understanding of
the material in the first half of the class.
4. Capstone Project (25%): This is a semester long effort to integrate and apply the concepts you
learn in class and through required readings to a particular development problem or issue. You
should start thinking about discrete policies or issues that you would like to explore further. Your
paper should conform to a standard economics journal article format and include both a theoretical
as well as empirical component. See "term paper instructions" for more information. Each
grammatical or copy error will result in a ONE POINT LOSS off your final paper grade.
5. Capstone Presentation (5%): Each student will present their term paper project in-class during
the last week of class. Students must show up for all presentations. If you fail to show up for your
classmates presentation you will not be permitted to present.
6. Second midterm exam (20%): This will be an in-class exam. No make-ups will be given.
7. Class Participation (5%): Success in this class is dependent on class participation and interaction
with your peers. It is therefore necessary that you attend class. You are expected to come to class
prepared, having done the readings. Engaged, active, and respectful participation is expected from
all class participants.
Attendance Policy: You are allowed ONE unexcused absence. Each additional unexcused absence will
results in a decrease in your final letter grade by one step (ie. B to B-). You are also considered absent if
you arrive more than 15 minutes after class has begun. If you know you need to miss class, please let me
know in advance. There will be no make-up exams.
Academic Honesty: Students are expected not to cheat. Cheating includes copying another student’s
homework, looking at another student’s paper during a test, copying another author’s work without proper
citation. Please do not do any of these. Doing so will result in an F in the course and more problems than
the cheating is worth. Please talk to me if you have any questions about this, or if you feel so swamped that
cheating looks appealing.