 |
||||||||
 |
|
|||||||
 |
|
|||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
|||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||
IPEC 324: Political Economy of Growth, Redistribution and Poverty
This course covers three interrelated topics from a political economy perspective. The bulk of the course deals with the political economy of growth, looking at the impact of political institutions, inequality and political instability, among other things, on the cross-country variation in economic growth. In the rest of the course we study redistribution, inequality and poverty from a similar perspective, looking both at stylized facts, how we can explain variations over time and across countries, and the functional impact of these variables on the functioning of the economy. Most of the readings are empirical in nature, using econometrics as the tool. Hence, some familiarity, and in particular some interest for, econometrics is essential in order to enjoy this class.
Link to Syllabus: IPEC324 Syllabus
IPEC/PECO 401: Capstone In Political Economy
This seminar is designed to prepare students to carry out methodologically sound research at the cutting edge of international political economy and political economy. To achieve this purpose, the course will focus on the writing and presentation of a senior thesis. Its goal is to teach students to evaluate scholarly literature, assess its merits and limitations systematically, and make progressive contributions to the field. We will analyze contributions to ongoing debates and research programs using a set of research design questions as a guide. Students are expected to apply the same critical skills when writing and presenting their own research in class. Student presentations and papers will be evaluated using the same research design criteria. Greater understanding of the core works in the field is a positive externality in this course, but its focus will be on the writing, presentation and evaluation of senior theses.
Link to Syllabus: IPEC/PECO 401
IPEC 322: Economic Reforms and Corruption
This topic course in political economy is focused on two sets of literature; the economic literature on political economy of economic reforms, and the literature on corruption. The purpose of the course is to offer you an overview over the findings in these two fields, but also to give you some training in economic methodology. The examination is in the form of two written term papers, so it also serves the purpose of giving you some practice in how to write, which will be useful when you write your senior thesis your last semester. The first part of the course covers the literature on the political economy of economic reforms, dealing with political reasons for why socially beneficial reforms are delayed or simply not implemented. Students should be aware of that this part of the course focuses on formal economic modeling, so an interest in the formal side of economics is recommendable. In the second part of the course we learn about corruption. The focus here is on the empirical part of the literature, which tries to understand what causes corruption, and what the consequences of corruption are. In terms of methodology this part gives us an opportunity to practice our skills in applied econometrics.
Link to syllabus: IPEC 322
This course offers a brief introduction to a number of different applications of “new” political economy to important economic questions. The purpose of the course is twofold. The first purpose is to give you an understanding of the importance of politics for economic policy making in general, and to confirm this by offering a brief oversight of political economy applications across the spectrum of economic issues. The second purpose is to wet your appetite for the study of political economy, and encourage you to identify questions you find particularly interesting. You can then learn more about these questions in other more focused courses, since this course by construction and purpose only offers a brief oversight of each question. The notion of “new” political economy (by some referred to as “political economics”) refers to a literature that uses formalized models based on game theory and neo-classical economic theory to theoretically analyze the questions in mind, and econometrics to empirically test whether the predictions of the models are consistent with the available data. Hence, some of the material we will cover in this course will be in the style of formalized models, and applied econometric studies, so the intention is that you should also walk out of this class with a somewhat better understanding of these important tools for economic analysis.
Link to syllabus: IPEC 310
Back to main page
