Virtual Course on "Key Concepts in Macro Development"

The Structural Transformation and Economic Growth research programme ran a virtual course entitled “Key Concepts in Macro Development” in the spring of 2021.

Macro development is a small field. Textbooks are unavailable, and while many graduate programmes teach some of these concepts in their courses, very few have a specific course organised around and dedicated to macro development. This virtual course seeks to fill the gap for PhD students or even junior faculty throughout the profession who are interested in these topics but do not have access otherwise.

The course features six modules, each with two 90-minute lectures and introduced workhorse models, methods, and ideas in an organised fashion, as well as going over some empirics and recent contributions. In addition, supplemental lectures focus on other important topics in macroeconomic development.

The course syllabus and reading list can be found here.


Schedule of Lectures & Accompanying Resources:

Module 1: Introduction

  • Friday, February 5, Lecture 1: Empirical overview of macro development – Richard Rogerson (Princeton) Slides, Q&A, Recording
  • Friday, February 12, Lecture 2: Development accounting: methods and findings – Julieta Caunedo (Cornell) Slides, Q&A, RepositoryRecording
  • Thursday, February 18, Supplemental Lecture: Human capital in developing countries – Todd Schoellman (Minneapolis Fed) Slides, Q&ARecording

 Module 2: Structural transformation

  • Friday, February 19, Lecture 3: Key theories – Berthold Herrendorf (Arizona State) Slides, Q&A, TA SessionRecording
  • Friday, February 26, Lecture 4: Structural transformation, home production, and labour markets – L. Rachel Ngai (LSE) Slides, Q&ARecording
  • Thursday, March 11, Supplemental lecture: Labour market frictions and development – Mark Rosenzweig (Yale) Slides, Q&ARecording

Module 3: Misallocation

  • Friday, March 12, Lecture 5: Firm-level misallocation: benchmark model and early results – Richard Rogerson (Princeton) Slides, Q&ARecording
  • Thursday, March 18, Supplemental lecture: Political Institutions and development – Leonard Wantchekon (Princeton) Slides, Q&ARecording
  • Friday, March 19, Lecture 6: Recent applications and advance – Pete Klenow (Stanford) Slides, Q&ARecording

Module 4: Agricultural productivity

  • Thursday, March 25, Lecture 7: Agricultural productivity gap: measurement and explanations – David Lagakos (Boston U) Slides, Q&A, TA SessionRecording
  • Friday, March 26, Supplemental lecture: Technology diffusion and adoption – Chris Tonetti (Stanford) Slides, Q&ARecording
  • Thursday, April 1, Lecture 8: Barriers to technology adoption: what we know from micro empirics – Lauren Falcao Bergquist (Michigan) Slides, Q&ATA SessionRecording

Module 5: Risk and heterogeneous agents

Module 6: Spatial frictions