Bachelor 2024/2025

Development Economics

Type: Elective course (HSE/NES Programme in Economics)

Area of studies: Economics

Delivered by: Undergraduate Programmes Curriculum Support

Where: Faculty of Economic Sciences

When: 3 year, 1-4 module

Mode of studies: offline

Open to: students of one campus

Language: English

ECTS credits: 6

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course is an introduction tomodern development economics.The course takesthe perspective ofthe poor, be it a poor household ora poor individual:what choicesdoes the poor have? What are the trade-offs? What choices does s/he take (and why)?The first goal ofthe course is to discusssome commonwisdoms associated with the poor.For example, poor households are.. poor. So they spend everything they have on food, right?Poverty is often concentrated in rural areas. So poor households work exclusively in agriculture, right?Since poor households are ..poor, then they have no access to credit, do not save and do not insurethemselves, right?We will answerthese questionsthrough the lens of empirical evidence and simple economic theory. Inthe first part of the course, we will discuss possible and actual choices regarding nutrition, education,health and intra-household bargaining.We willsee that the poor are often perfectly rational andmuchsmarter than what common wisdom suggests.The course is as much aboutthe poor as itis aboutthe key factors that shape their lives:the State, the markets,the socio-economic environment.