Courses taught
Basic Microeconomics - ECON 1200 (introductory micro class for undergraduates)
The objective of this course is to understand how firms and households allocate scarce resources to satisfy their unlimited wants. Firms and households are the two primary economic agents of a society, where firms produce the goods and services consumed by households. We examine firm and household behavior under perfect and imperfect market structures. Finally, we analyze the different sources of market failure that invoke government participation, the third economic agent in an economy.
Applied Microeconometrics - ECON 6970 (for Masters and PhD students)
The objective of this course is to provide advanced level training in applied microeconometric techniques that are frequently used in research. This course is targeted to PhD students and will focus on causal inference. We will begin with the ideal experiment – that is, understanding causal inference with experimental data and then move to non-experimental evaluation techniques. We will learn to obtain causal estimates using Randomized Control Trials, Natural Experiments, Instrument Variables, Fixed-effects, and Regression Discontinuity Design. Lastly, we will also discuss core econometric issues around – non-random sample selection (including but not limited to missing data, survey non-response, and others), multiple hypothesis testing, and clustering.
Development Economics - ECON 3210 (intermediate level class for undergraduates) ECON 6400 (for Masters and PhD students)
The objective of the course is to provide you an understanding of the causes and consequences of economic deprivation. In this course, the household is the major unit of analysis. We will cover topics in poverty, health, education, program evaluation, microfinance, and the inter play between development and psychology. We will draw lessons from policy experiments in developing countries to understand what works and what doesn’t.
Health and Development (taught with Professor Sophie Mitra) - ECON 5600 (for Masters and PhD students)
This course will introduce you to the field of health and development. The objective is to cover a range of theoretical and empirical topics relevant for understanding health and health care policies in developing countries. We will use microeconomic techniques to understand the demand and supply of health, measurement of health over the life-cycle (in-utero, early childhood, adolescence, working age population, aging population), and the role of public policy in improving the demand and supply of health over the life-cycle. This course also has an interdisciplinary component as students will be exposed to studies from related fields, in particular, disability studies, development studies, and public health.