ECON 672: Economics of Development

Fall 2026

Course logistics

Professor
Remy Beauregard
Professor email
rbeauregard@usfca.edu
Credit
2 units
Lectures
Tuesday · 2:40-4:25 PM · Cowell Hall 413
Term
August 25 to December 17, 2026
Office hours
Tuesday · 12:15-2:15 PM · McLaren 108

Virtual meetings outside of scheduled office hours can be arranged through my office hours sign-up calendar.

Course description

Development economics: theoretical and empirical investigations of economic development issues, policies, and strategies. Offered every Fall.

This course is an introduction to development economics at the graduate level. We will read and discuss research from across the field to understand both the questions development economists ask and the methods they use to answer them.

The course considers development at both the macro and micro level. We begin with aggregate macroeconomic patterns: why income differences across countries are so large and so persistent, and what happens to output and the distribution of income as economies structurally transform. We then turn to the microfoundations of markets, institutions, and household decisions that produce these aggregate patterns, and to the programs and policies designed to address them. We will explore:

  • Why are some countries richer than others, and why has convergence been so uneven?

  • What happens to the distribution of income as economies transform, and why do workers move, or fail to move, between sectors and places?

  • What forces keep households in poverty, and what makes escape possible?

  • What shapes household decisions about family size, and how does population change interact with development?

  • How do governments, markets, and non-governmental organizations each try to raise living standards, and how do we know whether they succeed?

  • How have the philosophies and methods of development economics changed over recent decades, and what has the field gained and lost in those shifts?

A given week may combine a textbook chapter, a chapter from Poor Economics, and a research paper presented and discussed by a member of the class. Students should read these materials thoroughly and come to class prepared to discuss the week’s topic. Additional recommended materials are provided some weeks for further reading, but are not expected to be discussed in class. Expect to encounter real disagreement among economists, about findings and about methods!

Course learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

  • Explain core theoretical and empirical frameworks in development economics at an introductory graduate level, spanning aggregate growth and structural transformation as well as household and firm behavior under market failure.

  • Read, interpret, and evaluate peer-reviewed academic journal articles in development economics, identifying their research question, identification strategy, foundational assumptions, and threats to external validity and scalability.

  • Describe the economic, political, and institutional forces that keep people in poverty and enable escape from it, at both the household and aggregate level, including how incentives and institutional structure shape whether policies achieve their intended effects.

  • Compare the principal methodological approaches in the field, including randomized experiments, quasi-experimental designs, and structural and macro-level analysis, and articulate the strengths and limitations of each.

  • Critically evaluate competing positions in development policy debates, including the relative roles of geography and institutions, the case for and against industrial policy and trade protection, and the efficacy of foreign aid.

  • Locate and work with standard development data sources, calculate and interpret summary statistics, and present findings graphically in a final paper and presentation.

  • Present and critically discuss a published research paper orally, conveying its question, design, findings, and limitations clearly to an audience of peers.

Assignments

The assignments in this course are designed to support you in working toward the learning outcomes above and to provide an opportunity for you to explore a topic of your choosing for the course project.

  • Class participation. Attend weekly class sessions and participate in class discussions and activities.

  • Departmental seminar. Attend the (almost) weekly Departmental Research Seminar and submit the attendance QR code.

  • Weekly reading responses. Submit a response to the week’s assigned paper on Canvas by the beginning of class each Tuesday at 2:40pm. For more details, see the Weekly Reading Response Guidelines page on Canvas. Each week’s readings are listed in the response assignment on Canvas.

  • Reading presentation. Each week beginning September 1, one student will be selected at random during class to present their submitted response before we discuss the paper as a group. Selection is without replacement, so every student will present once over the semester. Because the order is random and drawn in class, come prepared to present each week. Presentations are brief, 5-8 minutes, and are assessed on the same criteria as the written response. If a selected student is absent with an excused absence approved in advance by the professor, they will be skipped and returned to the pool. An unexcused absence results in a grade of zero and removal from the pool. I will model the presentation format on the first day of class using the week 1 paper.

  • Independent project. Working independently or in groups of 2, you will develop an independent empirical project incrementally across the semester, with outputs due roughly every other Friday by 6:00pm. For more details and due dates, see the Final Project Guidelines page on Canvas. Final group presentations will be held on the last day of class and during the final exam period.

Grading

Your overall grade in this course is calculated as a weighted sum of the assignments below. No other assignments are eligible for credit in this course.

Assignment category Weight
Participation in class discussion 10%
Departmental seminar attendance 10%
Weekly written reading responses 30%
Randomly selected reading presentation 10%
Independent project and final presentation 40%
Total 100%

Class grades will be assigned according to the following scale:

Letter grade Score range
A Above 93%
A- 90 to 93%
B+ 87 to 90%
B 83 to 87%
B- 80 to 83%
C+ 77 to 80%
C 70 to 77%
D 60 to 70%
F Below 60%

Please contact Professor Beauregard with any concerns about class grades.

Course schedule

Weekly topics, textbook chapters, and required journal articles are listed below. Full citations for every required, recommended, and supplemental reading appear in the extended reading list at the end of this syllabus.

Weekly topics and readings

Wk Topic de Janvry & Sadoulet Poor Econ. Required journal article
1 What is development? Indicators and issues Introduction; Ch 1 None Banerjee & Duflo (2007), “The Economic Lives of the Poor,” JEP
2 The state of development: growth and cross-country income differences Ch 2; Ch 8, pp. 219-230 None Acemoglu, Johnson, & Robinson (2001), “The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development,” AER
3 Structural transformation and inequality Ch 8, pp. 230-244; Ch 6 None Gollin, Lagakos, & Waugh (2014), “The Agricultural Productivity Gap,” QJE
4 History of thought in development economics Ch 3 Foreword; Ch 1 Rodrik (2010), “Diagnostics before Prescription,” JEP
5 Impact evaluation: methods and their critics Ch 4 Preface; In Place of a Sweeping Conclusion Deaton (2010), “Instruments, Randomization, and Learning about Development,” JEL
6 Poverty, vulnerability, and poverty traps Ch 5 Ch 2 Kraay & McKenzie (2014), “Do Poverty Traps Exist? Assessing the Evidence,” JEP
7 Population, fertility, and the household Ch 11 Ch 5 Ashraf, Field, & Lee (2014), “Household Bargaining and Excess Fertility,” AER
8 Financial services for the poor: credit and microfinance Ch 13, pp. 326-338 Ch 7 Banerjee, Duflo, Glennerster, & Kinnan (2015), “The Miracle of Microfinance?” AEJ: Applied
9 Fall break, no class None None None
10 Risk, insurance, and savings Ch 13, pp. 338-350; Ch 10, pp. 270-274 Ch 6 or 8 Karlan, Osei, Osei-Akoto, & Udry (2014), “Agricultural Decisions after Relaxing Credit and Risk Constraints,” QJE
11 Human capital: health and education Ch 17 Ch 3 or 4 Miguel & Kremer (2004), “Worms,” Econometrica
12 Labor markets and migration Ch 12 Ch 9 Lagakos, Mobarak, & Waugh (2023), “The Welfare Effects of Encouraging Rural-Urban Migration,” Econometrica
13 Institutions, incentives, and implementation Ch 20; Ch 21, pp. 534-541 Ch 10 Olken (2007), “Monitoring Corruption: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia,” JPE
14 Social programs, targeting, and cash transfers Ch 14 Ch 11, pp. 267-282 Egger, Haushofer, Miguel, Niehaus, & Walker (2022), “General Equilibrium Effects of Cash Transfers,” Econometrica
15 Aid, industrial policy, and the role of the state Ch 7, pp. 197-209; Ch 19, pp. 483-496 None Juhász (2018), “Temporary Protection and Technology Adoption,” AER
16 Overview and student final presentations Introduction; Ch 1, pp. 47-49 (reread) None None

Project deliverables

Project outputs are due on Canvas by 6:00pm on Friday of the week listed. The project is worth 130 points.

Due Deliverable Points
Friday 8/28 (week 1) Interest Survey 5
Friday 9/4 (week 2) Initial Topic Proposals 5
Friday 9/18 (week 4) Revised Topic Proposals 10
Friday 9/25 (week 5) Preliminary Literature List 5
Friday 10/9 (week 7) Literature Review 15
Friday 10/16 (week 8) Identifying Data Source(s) 5
Friday 11/6 (week 11) Data Analysis 15
Friday 11/20 (week 13) Draft Presentation Slides + Paper 5 + 5
Friday 12/4 (week 15) Final Presentation Slides + Paper 10 + 25
Tuesday 12/8 (week 16) Class presentation, delivered in class 25

Texts (required)

de Janvry, Alain, and Elisabeth Sadoulet. 2021. Development Economics: Theory and Practice, 2nd ed. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9780367456474.

Banerjee, Abhijit V., and Esther Duflo. 2025. Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, revised and updated ed. New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 1541706188.

Extended Course Article List

This list includes full citations for all required journal articles, plus any recommended or supplemental readings, organized by week. PDFs of all required and recommended articles are provided on Canvas. Supplemental articles are available through the linked article titles; please contact Professor Beauregard with any problems accessing course materials.

Week 1, 8/25. What is development? Indicators and issues

Required

Banerjee, Abhijit V., and Esther Duflo. 2007. “The Economic Lives of the Poor.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 21 (1): 141-168.

Week 2, 9/1. The state of development: growth and cross-country income differences

Required

Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson. 2001. “The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation.” American Economic Review 91 (5): 1369-1401.

Supplemental

Albouy, David Y. 2012. “The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation: Comment.” American Economic Review 102 (6): 3059-3076.

Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson. 2012. “The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation: Reply.” American Economic Review 102 (6): 3077-3110.

Week 3, 9/8. Structural transformation and inequality

Required

Gollin, Douglas, David Lagakos, and Michael E. Waugh. 2014. “The Agricultural Productivity Gap.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 129 (2): 939-993.

Week 4, 9/15. History of thought in development economics

Required

Rodrik, Dani. 2010. “Diagnostics before Prescription.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 24 (3): 33-44.

Supplemental

Selected contributions to the symposium “The Agenda for Development Economics,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 24 (3), Summer 2010, freely available in the Journal of Economic Perspectives issue archive:

Deaton, Angus. 2010. “Understanding the Mechanisms of Economic Development.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 24 (3): 3-16.

Acemoglu, Daron. 2010. “Theory, General Equilibrium, and Political Economy in Development Economics.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 24 (3): 17-32.

Ray, Debraj. 2010. “Uneven Growth: A Framework for Research in Development Economics.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 24 (3): 45-60.

Week 5, 9/22. Impact evaluation: methods and their critics

Required

Deaton, Angus. 2010. “Instruments, Randomization, and Learning about Development.” Journal of Economic Literature 48 (2): 424-455.

Supplemental

Imbens, Guido W. 2010. “Better LATE Than Nothing: Some Comments on Deaton (2009) and Heckman and Urzua (2009).” Journal of Economic Literature 48 (2): 399-423.

Week 6, 9/29. Poverty, vulnerability, and poverty traps

Required

Kraay, Aart, and David McKenzie. 2014. “Do Poverty Traps Exist? Assessing the Evidence.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 28 (3): 127-148.

Supplemental

Ray, Debraj. 1998. “Poverty and Undernutrition.” Chapter 8 in Development Economics, 249-294. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Week 7, 10/6. Population, fertility, and the household

Required

Ashraf, Nava, Erica Field, and Jean Lee. 2014. “Household Bargaining and Excess Fertility: An Experimental Study in Zambia.” American Economic Review 104 (7): 2210-2237.

Week 8, 10/13. Financial services for the poor: credit and microfinance

Required

Banerjee, Abhijit, Esther Duflo, Rachel Glennerster, and Cynthia Kinnan. 2015. “The Miracle of Microfinance? Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 7 (1): 22-53.

Week 9, 10/20. Fall break, no class

Week 10, 10/27. Risk, insurance, and savings

Required

Karlan, Dean, Robert Osei, Isaac Osei-Akoto, and Christopher Udry. 2014. “Agricultural Decisions after Relaxing Credit and Risk Constraints.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 129 (2): 597-652.

Week 11, 11/3. Human capital: health and education

Required

Miguel, Edward, and Michael Kremer. 2004. “Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities.” Econometrica 72 (1): 159-217.

Supplemental

Aiken, Alexander M., Calum Davey, James R. Hargreaves, and Richard J. Hayes. 2015. “Re-analysis of health and educational impacts of a school-based deworming programme in western Kenya: a pure replication.” International Journal of Epidemiology 44 (5): 1572-1580.

Davey, Calum, Alexander M. Aiken, Richard J. Hayes, and James R. Hargreaves. 2015. “Re-analysis of health and educational impacts of a school-based deworming programme in western Kenya: a statistical replication of a cluster quasi-randomized stepped-wedge trial.” International Journal of Epidemiology 44 (5): 1581-1592.

Hicks, Joan Hamory, Michael Kremer, and Edward Miguel. 2015. “Commentary: Deworming externalities and schooling impacts in Kenya: a comment on Aiken et al. (2015) and Davey et al. (2015).” International Journal of Epidemiology 44 (5): 1593-1596.

Hargreaves, James R., Alexander M. Aiken, Calum Davey, and Richard J. Hayes. 2015. “Authors’ Response to: Deworming externalities and school impacts in Kenya.” International Journal of Epidemiology 44 (5): 1596-1599.

Week 12, 11/10. Labor markets and migration

Required

Lagakos, David, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, and Michael E. Waugh. 2023. “The Welfare Effects of Encouraging Rural-Urban Migration.” Econometrica 91 (3): 803-837.

Week 13, 11/17. Institutions, incentives, and implementation

Required

Olken, Benjamin A. 2007. “Monitoring Corruption: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia.” Journal of Political Economy 115 (2): 200-249.

Week 14, 11/24. Social programs, targeting, and cash transfers

Required

Egger, Dennis, Johannes Haushofer, Edward Miguel, Paul Niehaus, and Michael Walker. 2022. “General Equilibrium Effects of Cash Transfers: Experimental Evidence from Kenya.” Econometrica 90 (6): 2603-2643.

Week 15, 12/1. Aid, industrial policy, and the role of the state

Required

Juhász, Réka. 2018. “Temporary Protection and Technology Adoption: Evidence from the Napoleonic Blockade.” American Economic Review 108 (11): 3339-3376.

Supplemental

de Janvry, Alain, and Elisabeth Sadoulet. 2021. “Political Economy and the Role of the State.” Chapter 21, pp. 518-534, in Development Economics: Theory and Practice, 2nd ed. Routledge.

Week 16, 12/8. Overview and student final presentations

No new readings. Reread de Janvry and Sadoulet, Introduction and Chapter 1, pp. 47-49.

Program learning outcomes

This course’s objectives flow from the learning goals of the MS IDEC Program. In particular, its scope is designed to help students:

  • Understand the application of modern micro and macroeconomic theory to the key problems of economic development, concentrating here on growth and structural transformation, market failures, poverty traps, and the structure of incentives. Open economy models of trade, finance, and exchange rate determination are developed further in the program’s international economics coursework.

  • Effectively communicate research findings in writing and orally, through written paper evaluations, an in-class research paper presentation, and the development and presentation of an independent research project throughout the semester.

The course also begins preparing students for the program goals of designing fieldwork-based research and conducting original empirical analysis. The independent project covers the full arc of a short research paper, from research question to literature review to data analysis to results. Additionally, close reading of peer-reviewed published work, with attention to research design, identification, and generalizability, is the foundation for a viable second-year thesis question.