Courses
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Topics in Economic Development Syllabus
This course provides a graduate-level overview of microeconomic issues in economic development. The goal of this course is to develop an understanding of economic development from an international perspective with a focus on empirical research. The course will begin with a general overview of economic development. Next, we will focus on the relationship between economic growth, income inequality and poverty. We will discuss measurement and policy issues on poverty and poverty alleviation. The following section will look at the issues involved in analyzing household behaviour, such as production and consumption decisions made by households and intra-household allocations. Human capital and labor markets constitute an important part of micro-economic development. In the following section, we will look at the issues involving labor markets and child labor in developing countries. Next, we will study institutions, credit markets and microfinance. We will end the course by analyzing the relationship between global integration and economic development.
The objective of this course is to help students develop a solid understanding of intermediate concepts in microeconomic theory. This course will start with intertemporal choice and investment decisions made by consumers. Next, we will study general equilibrium in an economy consisting of many competitive markets and discuss efficiency of resource allocation. Following this study of perfectly competitive markets, we will focus on markets under oligopoly and we will use game theory to extend our analysis to strategic decision making. The course will end with analysis of some circumstances in which competitive markets fail to produce efficient outcomes, such as externalities and asymmetric information.
International Economics
The course covers material describing the pattern of world production and explaining the basis for international trade and the gains from trade. We survey trade policies and evaluate the effects of these policies on domestic and international welfare. We look at new arguments for restricting trade and the development of preferential trading agreements. We study the World Trade Organization, international factor mobility, and special issues for developing economies.
Graduate Math and Stats Refresher Syllabus
The objective of the course is to introduce and review some of the mathematical methods that are most commonly used in modern economics. This course is based on lecture notes. The optional textbooks provide reference material that will help students better understand materials covered in class.
The purpose of this course is to explore concepts overlapping the fields of international trade and economic development. The course will cover material describing the pattern of economic development and evaluating impacts of global integration from the perspective of a developing country. The course will start with an overview of economic development. We will then discuss poverty and inequality and their relationship with economic growth. We will cover topics on the theory of international trade and its effects on various aspects of economic development. The applications of these concepts will focus on India, a country that is an important international player and also contains a significant portion of the world's poor population. We will pay specific attention to the Indian globalization experience and survey its effects on development.
