Lecture hall, hands raised.
Course

Virtual Course on "Key Concepts in Macro Development"

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

What? The course is designed around a series of modules of two 90-minute lectures. These modules introduce workhorse models, methods, and ideas in an organised fashion, as well as going over some empirics and recent contributions. The 6 modules constitute 12 lectures. In addition, we have supplemental lectures that are more stand alone and focus on other important topics in macroeconomic development. Together the modules and supplemental lectures constitute 20 lectures, a full quarter course.

Why? 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 will 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 virtual classes will be interactive, just as virtual graduate lectures in most departments are now.

 For whom? The course is open free-of-charge to all interested PhD students and economics faculty. Course materials (syllabus, lecture presentations, and recorded lectures) will be available after the fact on the STEG website.

How to attend? Those who apply and register for the course by January 31 are expected to attend regularly and can actively participate in the Zoom class. Registered graduate students should have a faculty sponsor them.

When? 5 February-7 May, either one (Friday) or two (Thursday and Friday) lectures a week, 4 pm London time (GMT through March dates, and then GMT+1 for April and May dates).

The course syllabus, schedule of lectures, reading list, and registration can be found here.

Schedule of Lectures:

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, Repository, Recording
  • Thursday, February 18, Supplemental Lecture: Human capital in developing countries – Todd Schoellman (Minneapolis Fed) Slides, Q&A, Recording

 Module 2: Structural transformation

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

Module 3: Misallocation

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

Module 4: Agricultural productivity

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

Module 5: Risk and heterogeneous agents

Module 6: Spatial frictions

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