Courses

BREAD-IGC Virtual PhD Course, Fall 2023

Enviromental Economics

BREAD-IGC Virtual PhD Course, Spring 2023

Firms and Development

BREAD-IGC Virtual PhD Course, Spring 2022

Modules on Education; Credit, insurance, and risk; and Migration

The Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), in collaboration with the International Growth Centre (IGC), is offering a virtual PhD non-credit course for the spring of 2022. This semester-long course will cover education; credit, insurance, and risk; and migration. Future courses will cover other topics in development economics.

The spring 2022 course consists of three modules, each composed of 5-10 lectures. Together the modules constitute a full semester course. This course was organized by the BREAD Course Committee: Joe Kaboski (Notre Dame), Mark Rosenzweig (Yale), Chris Udry (Northwestern), and Dean Yang (Michigan).

The course is open and free of charge to all interested PhD students and economics faculty worldwide. Course materials (syllabus, lecture presentations, and recorded lectures) will be available after the end of each module on the IGC website.

Those who apply and register for the course by 20 January 2022 are expected to attend regularly and can actively participate in the Zoom class. Late registrations will be considered on the basis of space available. Registered graduate students should have a faculty member from their university sponsor them (there is no financial cost associated with sponsorship).

Dates/time: The course will run from 27 January-5 May 2022, with either one or two lectures a week, on Thursday and/or Friday. Lecture time will always be 10:00-11:30 am EDT / 3:00-4:30 pm London time (GMT through March dates, and then GMT+1 for April and May dates).

Registration: To register for the full course, please fill out the registration form by 20 January 2022. Further details will be shared with registered students in January.

Module 1: Education

This module will examine the role of schooling in developing countries. We will first look at evidence on why, where, and when schooling augments productivity, as well as what are the barriers to school attainment. We will then cover topics such as school curriculum, school quality measurement, the use, and benefits of technology in schools, teacher incentives and performance, markets for public and private schools, methods for improving school quality, the role of information in school markets, and methods of allocating students among schools. Module organizers: Esther Duflo and Mark Rosenzweig.

  • Thursday, 27 January: Productivity of Schooling, Returns to Schooling – Mark Rosenzweig (Yale)
  • Friday, 28 January: Barriers to School Attendance, Gender Differences – Mark Rosenzweig (Yale)
  • Thursday, 3 February: Pedagogy/Curriculum and why schools (private and public) tend to fail – Esther Duflo (MIT)
  • Friday, 4 February: School Quality – Isaac Mbiti (University of Virginia)
  • Thursday, 10 February: School Technology – Karthik Muralidharan (UC San Diego)
  • Friday, 11 February: Teaching Incentives – Karthik Muralidharan (UC San Diego)
  • Thursday, 17 February: School Markets 1 – Jishnu Das (Georgetown)
  • Friday, 18 February: School Markets 2 – Asim Khwaja (Harvard)
  • Thursday, 24 February: Centralised School Assignment, Information – Kehinde Ajayi (World Bank)
  • Friday, 25 February: School Choice, Sorting – Chris Nielson (Princeton)

Module 2: Credit, insurance, and risk

We examine financial markets in the context of development economics. We first discuss the empirical implications of simple models of the efficient allocation of risk, and the consequences of information, enforcement, and behavioural frictions for informal risk sharing, welfare, and production decisions. We cover the design, demand for, and impact of formal insurance. The role of savings in a risky environment is discussed next, and we consider both external and behavioural barriers to saving. The module concludes with discussions of microfinance, mobile money and digital finance, and insurance. Module organizers: Pascaline Dupas and Chris Udry.

  • Thursday, 3 March: Informal Risk Sharing: Efficient Allocations of Risk – Chris Udry (Northwestern)
  • Friday, 4 March: Informal Risk Sharing: Barriers to Full Insurance – Chris Udry (Northwestern)
  • Thursday, 10 March: Demand for Formal Insurance – Lorenzo Casaburi (University of Zurich)
  • Friday, 11 March: Impact of Insurance Products – Lorenzo Casaburi (University of Zurich)
  • Thursday, 17 March: Saving: Benchmark and External Barriers – Pascaline Dupas (Stanford)
  • Friday, 18 March: Saving: Behavioural Barriers – Pascaline Dupas (Stanford)
  • Thursday, 24 March: Credit 1 – Emily Breza (Harvard)
  • Friday, 25 March: Credit 2 –  Emily Breza (Harvard)
  • Thursday, 31 March: Mobile Money – Tavneet Suri (MIT)
  • Friday, 1 April: Digital Finance and Insurance – Tavneet Suri (MIT)

Module 3: Migration

This module will cover the economics of migration from the standpoint of developing countries. We will first introduce a theoretical framework, and then discuss frontier research on internal and international migration. We will cover the role of networks in migration, and topics related to migration and risk. The module will conclude with recent economics research on migration-related development policy. Module organizers: Melanie Morten and Dean Yang.

  • Thursday, 7 April: Introduction, Framework, and Internal Migration – Melanie Morten (Stanford) and Featured speaker: Travis Baseler (Rochester)
  • Thursday, 14 April: International Migration – Dean Yang (Michigan) and Featured speaker: Gaurav Khanna (UCSD)
  • Thursday, 21 April: Migration and Networks – Kaivan Munshi (Yale) with Featured speakers: Josh Blumenstock (Berkeley), Clement Imbert (Warwick)
  • Friday, 29 April: Migration and Risk – Mushfiq Mobarak (Yale) and Featured speakers: Marieke Kleemans (UIUC), Mahesh Shrestha (World Bank)
  • Thursday, 5 May: Migration Policy – David McKenzie (World Bank) and Featured speakers: Tijan Bah (Navarra), Caroline Theoharides (Amherst)