Teaching

Econ 184. Economic Development in Africa

Winter 2010

Syllabus | Slides | 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:

• 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 and on reserve].
• Moss, Todd (2007) African Development. Manking Sense of Issues and Actors, Lynne Rienner Publishers. [On reserve]

Suggested:

• Easterly, William (2002) The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics. The MIT Press. [HC59.72.P6 E17 2001].
• Banerjee, Abhijit; Roland Benabou and Dilip Mookherjee (2006) Understanding Poverty. Oxford University Press. [HC79.P6 U534 2006].
• Fafchamps, Marcel (2004) Market Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Theory and Evidence. MIT Press. [HC800 .F33 2004]

Slides

Introduction [pdf]

I. Patterns of economic development in Africa [pdf]

Statistical analysis [pdf] (other examples: [.pdf] and a comic [website])

II. Economic growth: capital accumulation [pdf]

III. Economic growth: geography [pdf] (variables) vs. institutions [pdf].

IV. Poverty, inequality and race in South Africa [pdf]

V. Education [pdf]

VI. Insurance and shocks [pdf]

VII. The aid debate [pdf]

VIII. Economic development and conflict [pdf]

IX. Corruption [pdf]

Problem sets

Problem set 1: [pdf]. Datasets: world [xls] and ssa [xls]. Answers [pdf]

Problem set 2. [pdf]. Dataset: za [xls].

Presentations and paper

Guidelines for presentations and paper [pdf]

List of groups [pdf]

Additional material

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