Reading assignments:
Please study the article before coming to class.
  • October 21: Dercon, Stefan. "Growth and Shocks: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia" Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 74, No. 2 (2004), pp. 309-29 pdf
  • October 26: de Janvry, Alain , Frederico Finan, Elisabeth Sadoulet, and Renos Vakis,  "Can conditional cash transfer programs improve social risk management? Lessons for education and child labor outcomes". 2004 pdf
  • October 28: Jalan, Jyotsna and Martin Ravallion. "Are the poor less well insured? Evidence on vulnerability to income risk in rural China." Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 58, No. 1 (1999), pp. 61-81 link
  • November 2: Ghatak, M; Guinnane, TW. "The economics of lending with joint liability: theory and practice." Journal of Development Economics1999 OCT, V60 N1:195-228. pdf
  • November 4: Pitt, Mark, and Shahidur Khandker.  " The Impact of Group Based Credit Progams on Poor Households in Bangladesh:  Does the Gender of Participants Matter?"  Journal of Political Economy , 1998, Vol.106 No. 5, pp. 958-996 link
  • November 9: McIntosh, Craig, Alain de Janvry, and Elisabeth Sadoulet. "How Rising Competition among Microfinance Lenders Affect Incumbent Village Bank", forthcoming in Economic Journal link
  • November 16: Alderman, Harold. (2002). "Do Local Officials Know Something We Dont?  Decentralization of Targeted Transfers in Albania." Journal of Public Economics 83 375-404. pdf
  • November 18: J-P. Faguet, Does Decentralization Increase Government Responsiveness to Local Needs? Decentralization and Public Investment in Bolivia, Journal of Public Economics, Volume 88, Issues 3-4, March 2004, Pages 867-893 link
  • November 23: Thorbecke, Erik. 2000. "The Evolution of the Development Doctrine and the Role of Foreign Aid, 1950-2000".  in Finn Tarp (ed.) Foreign Aid and Development, Taylor and Francis Group. chapter
  • November 30: handout on theories of sharecropping. pdf
  • December 2: Besley, T. and Burgess, R. (2000): Land Reform, Poverty and Growth: Evidence from India Quarterly Journal of Economics pdf
  • December 7: Discussion on the rental market model formulations. Read one example of such a formulation (by no means the only one):
    "Insecurity of Property Rights and Matching in the Tenancy Market". Karen Macours, Alain de Janvry, and Elisabeth Sadoulet. August 2004. paper
  • December 9: McKenzie David J. and Christopher Woodruff. "Do Entry Costs Provide and Empirical basis for Poverty Traps? Evidence from Mexican Microenterprises". link