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This course is designed for students interested in addressing important questions affecting nearly two-thirds of the world’s population living in poverty: why are some countries rich in comparison with the vast majority that are poor? Why do some countries grow faster than others? What are the most effective methods of improving health, education, and women empowerment in low and middle-income countries? Can the relaxation of credit and saving constraints help to alleviate poverty and empower women via microfinance? Are institutions the root cause of underdevelopment in former colonies? Can foreign aid via institutions as the World Bank and the IMF play a role in economic development? Is foreign aid efficient?

Objective:
While addressing these concerns in countries where many poor households live in poverty, this course is also intended to provide an overview of the leading issues and ongoing controversies in economic development trajectories and policy, and to expose students to the latest research findings in salient poverty-related topics. This course is therefore not confined to textbook chapters, but also to recent journal articles linking theories and empirical evidence, and to address context-specific questions on what works and what doesn’t for poverty alleviation in randomized control trials (RCTs).

Reading:
There is not a set text for this module. Students are strongly advised to start reading compulsory or starred (*) readings prior to each lecture. I expect students to come to each lecture prepared, that is, having read all lecture material for each Tuesday prior to the lecture, and actively participate in within-course discussions. Moreover, as of today, my ECON0054 students should be mindful of the need to master Stata and metrics methodologies which will be reviewed in tutorials, but students can already start reviewing Stata or R on their own.

Assumed knowledge:
Students are expected to have taken or be concurrently taking ECON0013 or equivalent or ECON0015, ECON0016 or equivalent and ECON0019 and/or ECON0020. Reading material can be technically challenging. Familiarity with OLS, Diff-in-Diff, IV and RDD is important. I strongly encourage all students intending to take this module to take a quick look at the reading material listed below. Indeed, third year undergraduates in economics should have the adequate background to go through the reading materials, lecture, and tutorials with ease. In the past, however, 2nd & final year Economics (L100, L101 and L102), final year Econ/Geography (LL17), Phil/Econ (VL51) and PPE (4V86), Econ/Stats (LG13) and Math/Econ (G1l1/G1LC) students have performed well beyond expectations in this course.

Software literacy: the preferred software for the class is Stata. This is a very user-friendly package and is the software most used in the economics profession at UCL. This software is available in campus computers or remotely via Desktop@UCL.Ìý

The follow up of this course is the ECON0030 module – also focusing on development and poverty alleviation from a different perspective this module is a final year module which you are encouraged to take in Term 2

Assumed knowledge: Students coming into this module should know micro, macro, and have a solid understanding of the Solow growth model. They should be able to understand OLS, 2OSL, instrumental variables, and randomized control trials. They should be able to explain various methodologies to detect causality, and read tables showing econometric results from journal articles.