This unit introduces the basic concept and understanding of development, contesting ideas around the promises of development and introduces students to what has been the global experience of development.
Week 1: Contextualising development economics
1. Sen Amartya (1983) Development: Which Way Now? The Economic Journal, Vol. 93, No. 372, pp. 745-762. 2. Sen, Amartya (1999)., Ch. 1 & 2, Development As Freedom, Anchor Books.
What are the different ways in which development has been conceptualised? What are various dimensions of development and how are they valued?
Week 2: Measuring development
Compulsory readings: 1. Martinez, Luis R. ”How Much Should We Trust the Dictator’s GDP Growth Estimates?.” Journal of Political Economy 130, no. 10 (2022) 2. Ray, Debraj (2010): Ch 2.2.1 : Measurement issues
Problems with GDP, what can GDP tell us vs. what it does not capture. What may be the other alternatives to measuring GDP?
Week 3: Measuring Poverty
Compulsory readings: 1. Ray, Debraj (2010): Ch 2 & 8: Poverty and Undernutrition, Development Economics. Princeton University Section 2.1., 2.2.1, 2.4, 8.1, 8.2 2. Banerjee Abhijit and Esther Duflo (2007) The Economic Lives of the Poor, Journal of Economic Perspectives 21:1, 141–154. 3. ILO Poverty Manual, Ch 4 - 4,1, 4,2, 4.3 4. More, Sachin & Nagendra, S. Poverty in India: concepts,measurement and status
Focus on the discussion around the Tendulkar and Rangarajan numbers. I do not expect you to know the exact numbers, just the methodology.
5. NITI Aayog (2023). National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023. https://niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2023-08/India-National-Multidimentional-Poverty-Index-2023.pdf, Exec Summary, Methodology (till page 17 of document)
6. Sinha, Dipa (2023). The Multidimensional Poverty Index is not all-encompassing. The Wire. https://thewire.in/economy/the-multidimensional-poverty-index-is-not-all-encompassing
What are the major dimensions of the the MPI? Method for calculating the index. Issues/concerns with the index.
Unit 2: Poverty and Poverty traps
This unit will study poverty as a central concept in development economics. It will critically explore the concept of poverty in its various forms, the debates, and discussion underlying measurement of poverty and the existence of poverty traps. The debate and discussion around various social welfare policies and their role in poverty alleviation will also be studied in detail.
Week 4: Poverty traps
Compulsory readings 1. Banerjee, A., and Duflo, E., Poor Economics, Chapter 1 2. Balboni, C., Bandiera, O., Burgess, R., Ghatak, M., and Heil, A. (2020) Why do people stay poor? Centre for Economic Policy Research, Discussion Paper DP14534.
For Balboni, read the sections specified in class. Understanding of poverty traps, how Balboni et al test for poverty traps, major robustness checks they do, what their findings imply for policy
ASSIGNMENT: Reading response 2
Week 5: Institutions and interventions
Compulsory readings 1. Khera Reetika (2013) Cash vs In-Kind Transfers: Indian Data Meets Theory, IEG Working Paper No. 325. Narayanan, S. (2021). A case for reframing the cash transfer debate in India. Economic and Political Weekly.
What are the major arguments in favour of cash transfers, and those in favour of in-kind transfers? What are the cons/disadvantages of each?
Unit 3: Health and nutrition
The purpose of this section is to understand the role of differential access to health and nutrition in determining developmental outcomes and poverty in developing countries like India.
Week 6: Health and nutrition
Compulsory readings: 1. Deaton Angus and Jean Drèze (2009) Food and nutrition in India: facts and interpretations, Economic and Political Weekly, 42-65. 2. Varghese & Radhakrishnan. Spending on processed food and commute to work surges. The Hindu Data Point 24th February 2024. https://www.thehindu.com/data/indians-spend-more-on-processed-food-less-on-home-cooked-me als-data/article67895063.ece
What are important measures of nutritional outcomes? How has India’s performance been on this? What are broad trends? What are some of the mechanisms behind the phenomenon being observed?
3. Jayachandran and Pande (2016). Why are Indian children so short? AER
How does India fare in stunting compared to other countries? What is the hypothesis the authors have to explain this phenomenon? How do they go about testing this? And what do they find? How do they go about testing for the role of cultural norms? What do they do to confirm that it is a first son preference not just a first child preference? What are the potential confounders and how do they account for this? Up to and including Section D (Section E onwards not included in the mid-sem exam) Week 7: Health, sanitation and social institutions Compulsory readings: 1. Spears D, Thorat A. The Puzzle of Open Defecation in Rural India: Evidence from a Novel Measure of Caste Attitudes in a Nationally Representative Survey. Econ Dev Cult Change. 2019 Jul;67(4):725-755. doi: 10.1086/698852. PMID: 38463711; PMCID: PMC10923561
What is the puzzle of open defecation in the Indian context? How do the authors go about attributing a cultural explanation for the puzzle? How do the authors confirm these as being cultural practices rather than practices emerging from lack of knowledge/information?
Unit 5: Fertility and demographic change
We will explore the demographic changes during economic development and theories of demographic transition alongside the factors determining fertility decisions, and their relationship with poverty. Week 9: Demographic transitions and fertility Compulsory readings: 1. Ray Debraj (1998) Population Growth and Economic Development, Ch. 9 - 9.1, 9.2, 9.3 of Development Economics, Princeton University Press. 2. Max Roser (2023) - "Demographic transition: Why is rapid population growth a temporary phenomenon?". Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/demographic-transition' 3. The New Economics of Fertility https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/Series/Analytical-Series/new-economics-of-fert ility-doepke-hannusch-kindermann-tertilt
Optional readings 1. Bardhan Pranab and Christopher Udry (1999) Population, Ch. 3 of Development Microeconomics, Oxford University Press. 2. Federici, S. Caliban and the Witch. Read from section: The state intervention in the reproduction of labor: poor relief, and the criminalisation of the working class till Devaluation of Womens labour, pages 82 - 91
Major concepts/measures in demographic. Limitations of population control policies. What are the stages of demographic transition, i.e. macro theories of fertility? What explains the different trends in each stage? Micro-theories of fertility and recent phenomenon and their explanations. What influences couples’ decision making around children? What are the different factors that can increase/decrease fertility rates?
Week 10: India’s demographic change and fertility transitions
1. Choithani , Khan. 2024, Southward Ho! Demographic Change, the North-South Divide and Internal Migration in India. https://www.theindiaforum.in/economy/southward-ho-demographic-change-north-south-divide-an d-internal-migration-india 2. James, K. S., Rana, J. 2020. India’s Fertility Transition and Differences between Religious Groups. India Forum Optional readings 1. Roser Max (2017) Fertility Rate, in Our World in Data, https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate 2. Roser Max, Hannah Ritchie and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2019) World Population Growth, in Our World in Data, https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growthDreze , J. Murthi, M. 2001. Fertility, Education and Development: Evidence from India. Population and Development Review 3. Ministry of Finance (2017) Income, Health, and Fertility: Convergence Puzzles, Economic Survey of India, Vol 1. Ch. 10, Government of India. 1. Boserup Ester (1989) Population, the Status of Women, and Rural Development, Population and Development Review, Vol. 15, pp. 45-60
What have been the recent trends in population growth in the Indian context? What are the implications for regional growth and development? What are some myths around India’s population dynamics?
Week 11: 1. Basu, K. Ch 7: The Structure of a Dual Economy. in Analytical Development Economics 2. Bandiera, Oriana, Ahmed Elsayed, Andrea Smurra, and Céline Zipfel. 2022. "Young Adults and Labor Markets in Africa." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 36 (1): 81-90.
What is the dual labour market Lewis model and what does it anticipate in the course of an economic development for a country with surplus labour? What are some policy implications and how may the Lewisan transformation be thwarted? What have been the major trends in terms of access to ‘modern sector’ salaried jobs?
Week 12: Land and poverty
Compulsory readings 1. Ray Debraj (1998) Land, Ch 12 of Development Economics, Princeton University Press.( 12.3.1, 12.3.2, 12.3.3, 12.4.1 12.4.2) 2. Griffin, K., Khan, A. R., and Ickowitz, A. (2002) Poverty and the Distribution of Land, Journal of Agrarian Change, 2(3), 279-330. Optional readings 1. Narayanan Sudha and Judhajit Chakraborty (2019) Land as Collateral in India, WP-2019-006, IGIDR, Mumbai.
ASSIGNMENT: Reading response (10%)
What are major forms of land tenancy and cultivation? Compare and contrast across these. When would sharecropping be preferred to fixed rent contracts? Why does sharecropping persist? What is the size-yield relationship? What are the systems of labour control and how does land come into this relationship?
Week 13: Credit and poverty
1. Ray Debraj (1998) Credit, Ch. 14 of Development Economics, Princeton University Press. (14.2, 14.3.1, 14.3.2, 14.3.3, 14.3.4, 14.3.5, 14.4) Optional reading 1. Bardhan Pranab and Christopher Udry (1999) Fragmented Credit Markets, Ch. 7 of Development Microeconomics, Oxford University Press. What are the limitations of formal lending institutions in rural areas? Why do informal institutions fare better? What are major conceptual models in rural lending - lender’s risk hypothesis, credit rationing , default and value of collateral. What are major features of rural credit markets?
Week 14: Microfinance
1. Banerjee A., Duflo E. Poor Economics. Ch: The (Not So) Simple Economics of Lending to the Poor 2. Debraj Ray: Sn 14.5.2 3. Banerjee Abhijit, Dean Karlan and Jonathan Zinman (2015) Six Randomized Evaluations of Microcredit: Introduction and Further Steps, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 7:1, 1–21 4. Milford and Chang (2012) Microfinance and the Illusion of Development: From Hubris to Nemesis in Thirty Years, World Economic Review Vol 1: 1-12.
What is microfinance? How is it different from formal/informal lending? What are its benefits/drawbacks?
