Country analysis

Outline

The course, taught in English, will discuss in a critical way a broad set of economic policies and institutions required to trigger economic growth in developing countries and emerging economies. Moving from the original proposals embedded in the Washington Consensus, the methodological approach follows the growth diagnostic proposed by Hausmann, Rodrik and Velasco. Other than discussing the theoretical arguments and the related empirical evidence, part of the course is devoted to introduce the main analytical tools (data sources, references, data elaboration) necessary to undertake a country-specific research project. Hence, part of the lectures will require the use of PCs and the internet.

Reading list (in progress); readings marked by a star (*) are compulsory:

(*) Rodrik, Dani (2007), One Economics, Many Recipes, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Birdsall, Nancy and Francis Fukuyama (2011), The Post-Washington Consensus: Development after the Crisis, Center for Global Development and Foreign Affairs.

(*) Williamson, John (2008), A Short History of the Washington Consensus, in N. Serra e J. Stiglitz (eds.) The Washington Consensus Reconsidered, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

(*) Rodrik, Dani (2010), Diagnostic Before Prescription, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24(3): 33-44.

IMF (2006), Understanding Growth, Finance & Development, 43(1).

(*) Banerjee, Abhijt (2006), Making Aid Work - How to fight poverty effectively, Boston Review, July/August.

On randomization, an open debate on The Economist

(*) Financial Globalization and Economic Development - Friends or Foes: Download the slides

(*) Rodrik, Dani and Arvind Subramanian (2009) Why Did Financial Globalization Disappoint?, IMF Staff Papers, 56(1): 112-138.

Kose, M.A., E. Prasad, K. Rogoff and S.J. Wei (2007) Financial Globalization: Beyond the Blame Game, Finance & Development, 44(1): 8-13.

(*) The International Monetary Fund: A short review of the determinants and outcomes of IMF lending. Download the slides.

Bird, Graham (2007) The IMF: A Bird's eye view of its role and operations, Journal of Economic Surveys, 21(4): 683-745.

Exam:

The overall evaluation consists of two parts. One (accounting for 1/3 of te whole evaluation) comes from a group work, while the second (accounting for 2/3 of the vote) is the final (written or oral) exam.

Results (July 1st, 2011)

Exam sheets: May 27th; June 10th; July 1st

Group work:

Each group of 3 students will be given a reading from the book In Search of Prosperity by Dani Rodrik (Princeton University Press, 2003) to present during a class (see the calendar and the assignments below). More details will be given during the classes.

Miscellaneous:

IMF video of a 2011 conference on Growth Strategies, and related papers

An article on the failures of decentralization in Indonesia, The Economist, March 17, 2011

An article on corruption in Sierra Leone, The Economist, March 17, 2011

A History of the World in 100 Seconds from Gareth Lloyd on Vimeo.

An easy reading on well-being and GDP by Allen Sanderson; a related discusson on the so-called Easterlin Paradox can be found here

Greg Mankiw on higher tax rates on the New York Times; a quick follow-up on his blog

A short note on Debt Default (in italian): Download.

The 2011 World Development Report Bubble Charts.

A Dani Rodrik lecture on structural change and development (full paper here):

The rising role of China in Africa, from The Economist

Few reading suggestions: Freakonomics, Superfreakonomics, L'economia secondo i pirati, Economic Gangsters, Guns, Germs and Steel (Armi, Acciaio e Malattie; J. Diamond), I numeri per agire (E. Duflo).

A novel way to combat corruption in India, from The Economist. More on doing business, corruption and foreign investment in India, again from The Economist.

Some recent success stories about industrialized and emerging economies notwithstanding the global crisis (from The Economist): Colombia, Australia and Poland.

Some short references on the debate over geography and institutions as sources of long-run economic development:

1. Daron Acemoglu, Root Causes, Finance & Development, IMF, June 2003.

2. Rodrik, Dani and Arvind Subramanian, The Primacy of Institutions, Finance & Development, IMF, June 2003.

3. Jeffrey Sachs, 2003, Institutions Matter, but Not for Everything, Finance & Development, IMF, June 2003.

4. Diamond, Jared, 2004, The Wealth of Nations, Nature, Vol. 429.

5. Nunn, Nathan, 2009, The Importance of History for Economic Development, Annual Review of Economics, Vol. 1, 2009.

Group assignments