Professor Elliott Green (CON.8.07)

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Economic Policy for International Development. This course is not available as an outside option.

Why are some countries rich and others poor? Why are some societies able to move onto virtuous cycles of rising living standards, rising productivity and spreading freedom, while others descend into poverty, chaos and war? What can policymakers do to help lead countries onto stable paths of development?

Guided by these questions, this course provides an introduction to the political economy of development. The course examines key comparative statics (i.e. the distribution of wealth and poverty across countries) and comparative dynamics (i.e. development as a path-dependent process over time) of international development through an economic, political and sociological analysis of institutions. We use institutional theory to help students answer these questions by critically evaluating the mechanisms that govern the operation of the different kinds of agency that are being used in developing countries to promote development and social change.

The course is divided into three parts. Part I sets out the theoretical approach – what might be termed a “historical political economy of institutions” – of the course, as well as considering alternative approaches. Part II explores market-led versus state-led approaches to development: their theoretical foundations, their application in different parts of the world and at different periods in the past 70 years, and the organizational building blocks of private sector (firms, the informal sector). Part III then examines the state in closer detail, including discussions of public sector bureaucratic reform, corruption, and taxation.

20 hours of lectures, 15 hours of seminars and 4 hours of workshops in the AT.

There will additionally be an introductory workshop at the start of AT. Students are expected to attend all these sessions. Lectures will focus on the theoretical debates driving current policy practice in the development community, while seminars will relate these to practical problems of implementation, drawing on case studies, class exercises, and the personal experience of participants. Seminars will discuss topics covered in the lecture, and will be conducted on the basis either of a student presentation or a class exercise.

In the Autumn Term, all students are expected to produce one 1,500-word essay on an assigned topic to prepare them for the final exam.

• Acemoglu, D. and J. Robinson. (2012). Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty. New York: Crown.
• Bannerjee, A.V. and E. Duflo. (2011). Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. New York: Public Affairs.
• Easterly, W. 2002 The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics: Economists Adventures and Misadventure in the Tropics. MIT Press
• Fukuyama, F., 2014. Political order and political decay: From the industrial revolution to the globalization of democracy. Macmillan.
• Kohli, A. (2004) State-directed development: political power and industrialization in the global periphery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Exam (30%, duration: 1 hour) in the spring exam period.
Take-home assessment (60%) in the ST.
Presentation (10%) in the AT.

(The take-home assessment will be a 4 hour exam during the spring exam period).