AØKA08088U Advanced Development Economics (Micro Aspects)

Volume 2014/2015
Education
MSc in Economics
Content

The course will cover the microeconomics of development, and will focus on approaches to understanding the behavior of households and firms, and the functioning of markets and institutions in developing countries. Since development is a field with a strong empirical tradition, most of the course will be centered on discussing and evaluating the empirical strategies used in the literature.

Key topics in micro development will be covered including:

(i) Agriculture

(ii) Household economics and intra household allocation,

(iii) Health and nutrition,

(iv) Human capital and education,

(v) Jobs, labor market and migration,

(vi) Doing business,

(vii) Land and property rights,

(viii) Savings and credit

(ix), Risk and insurance

(x) Social networks and learning,

(xi) Institutions and corruption and a

(xii) “Hot” topic.

Learning Outcome

The academic aims are:

  • To provide the students with a critical overview of the recent literature and important debates within the micro aspects of economic development.
  • To provide insight into methodological issues that arises when doing research on microeconomics of development. The emphasis will be on (i) How theoretical microeconomic hypothesis may be tested with data and (ii) how to identify causal relationships. Therefore, one aim is to gain some insight into what makes a good empirical study.
  • To provide students with a “hands-on” experience on how to replicate empirical results using relevant econometric software. This will hopefully prepare students for original independent empirical research and help identify possible interesting thesis topics.

 

By the end of the course the students should be able to:

  • Explain the main concepts and issues relevant to microeconomic problems of less developed countries.
  • Understand and solve presented theoretical models and be able to present the models’ empirical predictions.
  • Be able to present empirical results in a precise and consistent manor, as well as demonstrate a thorough understanding of the identification problems faced when carrying out empirical work.

Syllabus

Textbook: Bardhan and Udry (1999). “Development Microeconomics”, Oxford University Press.

Series of academic articles made available on the course homepage

None
2 hours lectures one to two times a week and 2 hours of exercise every week for 14 weeks.

Time and room:
Time and room for the lectures and exercise classes: Please press the link under "Se skema" (See schedule). 15F means Spring (Forår) 2015

The springsemester is available partly in English at this link:
https:/​/​skema.ku.dk/​KU1415/​reporting/​textspreadsheet?objectclass=module&idtype=id&identifier=43782&t=SWSCUST+module+textspreadsheet&days=1-5&weeks=27-52&periods=1-68&template=SWSCUST+module+textspreadsheet

The first lecture in the springsemester will be the 3.th of February 2015 at 10.00 o´clock (AM). The exercise classes begins in week 6.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 28
  • Exam
  • 3
  • Lectures
  • 42
  • Preparation
  • 161
  • Total
  • 234
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written examination, 3 hours under invigilation
A 3 hours written examination without aids.
Aid
Without aids
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
100 % censorship
Exam period
For the Spring semester 2015: Written exam will be the 28 of May 2015 The written exam takes place at Peter Bangsvej 36, 2000 Frederiksberg http://pc-eksamen.ku.dk/pc_exam More information is available at https://intranet.ku.dk/economics_ma/examination/Pages/default.aspx
Re-exam
Same as ordinary. But if only a few students have registered for the re-exam, the exam might change to an oral exam with a synopsis to be handed in. This means that the examination date also will change.
Criteria for exam assesment

The student must in a satisfactory way demonstrate that he/she has mastered the learning outcome of the course.