Applied Pathway

Applied Pathway: Political Economy & Development Economics

Course Dates: 11 - 15th September 2023

Choose to follow the Applied Pathway, to deepen your knowledge of Applied Economy with courses in Political Economics (morning session) and Development Economics (afternoon session).

Or mix and match, choosing different morning or afternoon sessions from our other pathways: Econometrics or Macroeconomics.

Morning Session

Political Economy

This course returns to an older tradition in economics, of studying the economy in its political-social context, except with more powerful theoretical and empirical tools.

Topics covered

  • Political Risk
  • Long-run Development: Institutional Persistence and Change
  • Identity and State Capacity
  • Religion and Politics: Cooperation and Conflict
  • Endogenous Preferences: Culture and Institutions

 

Afternoon Session

Development Economics: The Return of Big Picture Questions

The big picture questions that generations of development economists thought about, but lacked the tractable models, the rich microdata and the computing power to test at scale: this course provides an incomplete tour of recent frontier research in development economics. It combines reduced-form causal evidence with structural models and estimation to address 'old school' big picture questions of economic growth and development.

Topics Covered:

  • Economic growth and structural transformation
  • Poverty traps and policy scale-up
  • Infrastructure and spatial development
  • Energy access and the electrification puzzle
  • Climate change, environment and development