ECTS : 3
Description du contenu de l'enseignement :
The very large efforts carried out by countries and international organizations to increase income and fight poverty have been unequally successful. While some countries have seen impressive growth in the last 30 years, 736 million people still live in extreme poverty, one child out of three is undernourished and lacks access to drinking water. Famines and conflicts keep rising around the globe, undermining human and economic development.
How to fight poverty and inequality? How to improve the life conditions of millions of people? This course looks at major public policies and interventions that tackled poverty in developing countries in the past twenty years. After discussing the main concepts and tools to measure poverty, inequality and human development, we will go deep in analysing actions taken around the world to improve people’s lives. The course focuses on impact evaluations of public policies tackling the constraints to human and economic development tied to education, health, gender and agriculture in developing countries. It provides insights into social policies in developing countries, with a focus on the instruments and the political economy of the implementation of policies.
Compétence à acquérir :
The overall objectives of this course are to provide students with an overview of policies in developing countries, with a focus on the different types of instruments and the political economy of policy implementation. It will also discuss the impacts of education, health, gender and agricultural policies in developing countries.
The course is based on selected contemporary applied research in development economics, to be read by the students and to be discussed in class. By the end of the course, the students are expected to master the main challenges related to policies in developing countries and know the most recent evolutions in this literature. They will also be able to critically assess research work.
Mode de contrôle des connaissances :
Students’ presentation 20%
Final oral exam 70%
Class participation 10%
Bibliographie, lectures recommandées :
Compulsory reading (selected chapters): Duflo, Esther, and Abhijit Banerjee. Poor economics. Vol. 619. New York: PublicAffairs, 2011.
Optional readings - mostly discussed in class: