History of Development

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor

The history and theory of economic development provides an overview of economic development in historical perspective. We explore the ultimate and proximate causes of modern economic growth by comparing the growth experiences of Europe and European offshoots with the experiences of other parts of the world such as Japan, China, Africa and Latin America. We will pay particular attention to the role of geography, institutions, culture, trade and technology as ingredients for economic growth. There are no pre-requisites for the course. While some of the reading will contain some technical material, we will focus mostly on the ideas and insights and not the mathematical/econometric representations. This course has a moderate amount of reading and students are expected to keep up with the reading.