Macroeconomics

Topics on which either IIIE students have completed their thesis or currently working are as follows.

Potential Topics on which thesis can be done are as follows:

1. Green National Accounts: Conventional GDP measures are highly defective, and this has been widely recognized. There are many ways to correct these defects, for example HDI and others. Another direction stresses environment, which is emphasized in the paper below (Beyond Growth and Beyond Capitalism). These are worthwhile directions for research and many theses could be written using variants of these ideas. This would also be worthwhile as a real issue.

Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission produced a report on defects of GNP as a measure of national wealth. Based on this, a lot of research can be done. People have written a lot of papers on how X Y Z affect GDP growth. But if GDP is not the right measure, then we should be looking at the affect of X Y Z on the RIGHT MEASURE -- this includes poverty, distribution, social service provision, environments, Life Expectancy etc. That is, one we have a correct measure, every study which looks at GNP as the measure of progress can be re-done.This creates the potentional for a lot of new research.