Teaching

Econ 184. Economic Development in Africa

Spring 2008

Syllabus | Lectures | Problem sets | Blog | Presentations | Additional material

Syllabus

Syllabus [pdf] .

Course description:
This course will examine major current issues in development economics with special emphasis on how they relate to Sub-Saharan Africa. The course will combine macroeconomic (e.g. growth determinants, structural adjustments) and microeconomic issues (e.g. health, human capital, vulnerability) as well as institutional explanations for the lack of economic growth in the region. The course will pay particular attention to the policy implications from each of the topics covered here.

Textbooks
Required:

• Easterly, William (2002) The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics. The MIT Press. [HC59.72.P6 E17 2001].
• Kevane, Michael (2004) Women and Development in Africa: How Gender Works. Lynne Rienner Publishers. [HQ1240 5 A35 K48 2004].
• Collier, Paul (2007) The Bottom Billion [HC79.P6 C61 2007].

Suggested:

• Banerjee, Abhijit; Roland Benabou and Dilip Mookherjee (2006) Understanding Poverty. Oxford University Press. [HC79.P6 U534 2006].

Lectures

Introduction [pdf]

I. Patterns of economic development in Africa [pdf]

Statistical analysis [pdf] (other examples: [.pdf])

II. Economic growth: capital accumulation [pdf]

III. Economic growth: geography [pdf] vs. institutions [pdf].

IV. Agriculture and land tenure [pdf]

V. Poverty and inequality [pdf]

VI. Insurance and shocks [pdf]

VII. Health and education [pdf]

VIII. The economics of conflict, war and corruption [pdf]

Problem sets

Problem set 1 [pdf]. Files: [world.xls] and [ssa.xls]. Due April 29.

Problem set 2 [pdf]. Files: [za.xls]. Easterly paper [pdf] and NYT link [website]. Due May 27.

Presentations and paper

Groups and countries [pdf].

Guidelines for presentations and paper [pdf]

Presentations:

• May 13: Cameroon [pdf] and Sierra Leone [ppt].
• May 15: Mali and Ethiopia [ppt] and Sudan and Uganda [ppt].
• May 20: Angola and Rwanda [ppt] and Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire [ppt].
• May 22: Botswana and Zimbabwe [ppt].
• May 27: No presentation (invited speaker.)
• May 29:
• June 03:
• June 05:

Additional material

A. Deaton "Measuring poverty" [pdf]
W. Easterly "How the Millennium Development Goals are Unfair to Africa" [pdf]