ECO 330: Economics of Development

Course Information

Preliminary Schedule

Time: 12:35-1:30PM Mon,Wed,Fri
Location: HU 024
Website: www.albany.edu/~rossbach/eco330

Office Hours: 2:15-3:15 PM Wed, BA 109B
Contact: jrossbach@albany.edu

Lecture Notes & Slides

week 1
Lecture Slides on Income and Growth Rates (Notes on Time to Convergence and Excel Example)
week 2
Textbook Slides on Development Gap
week 3
Slides on Manipulating Formulas
Textbook Slides on Population Growth and Fertility (External Slides on Production Functions and on Malthusian Growth Models)
week 4
Slides on Solow Growth Model (Textbook Slides on Solow Growth Model)
week 5
Slides on Growth Accounting
week 6
Slides on Endogeneous TFP Growth
week 7
Slides on Structural Change (External Case Studies for Korea, Argentina, and China; Economist article on Argentina's National Account Statistics)
week 8
Mid-Semester Feedback and Grades (Plan for Rest of Semester)
Slides on Correlation vs Causation in Context of Development (Ted Talk on Correlation vs Causation; R code for: computing correlation, statistical artifacts, regression to the mean)
week 9
Geography and Development ( External Slides on Resetting Urban Network)
Simple Regression Primer (Cheatsheet on How to Interpret Regression Coefficients)
week 10
Textbook Slides on Institutions (A Few Lecture Slides on Inclusive vs Extractive Institutions, Acemoglu Video on Why Nations Fail)
STATA Instrumental Variable (IV) Example (Code for STATA IV Example)
Survey Paper on IV Regressions and Identifying Causality and Short Economist Article on Limits of IV's ← Highly recommend reading these
week 11
Slides on Misallocation (Video on Land Reform in South Africa and Paul Romer on Charter Cities)
week 12
Slides on International Development
week 13
Slides on Education (External slides on MTO Program, Video on Economic Despair)
Slides on Financial Markets (Muhammad Yunus on Grameen Bank, Video on Microcredit Benefits, BBC Video on Microfinance)

Worksheets

Handout for Worksheet on Growth Rates
Handout for Worksheet on Poverty and Inequality
Handout for Worksheet on Solow Growth Model
Handout for Worksheet on Correlations (Q1 R-Code: Built in Functions, Q1 R-Code: Worksheet Formulas, Excel File with Data for Question 3)
Handout for Worksheet on Regressions (Q1 R-Code, Q2 R-Code, Excel File with Graphs for Question 2)

Major Problem Sets

Upload typed answers to Blackboard

Problem Set 2 <- Clickable Link
Notes, Data, and Code for Problem Set 2:
Tips for Problem Set 2
STATA File with Data for Question 1 (STATA Code)
Excel File with India Data for Question 2
Completed Misallocation Exercise for Chile (Simple Two Firm Example of Misallocation)
Template for Submitting Answers for Problem Set 2

Problem Set 1 <- Clickable Link
Notes, Data, and Code for Problem Set 1:
Tips for Problem Set 1
R Code for Problem 1 (Open file with a plain text editor, such as notepad++, and copy and paste code into R console)
Excel File with Data for Question 2
US Quarterly Growth Accounting for Question 2.e
Growth Accounting Notes (Example of Growth Accounting for Mexico)
Template for Submitting Answers for Problem Set 1

Data Sources