71 - 80 of 136 results for: ECON

Use of quantitative theory to understand various aspects of the growth and development process. Emphasis on family and demographic issues and their importance for development. Theoretical models of fertility and marriage decisions, and their empirical relevance. Unified growth theories: demographic transition and industrial revolution. Family institutions such as marriage payments and polygamy. The political economy of family-related institutions, e.g. the evolution of women's and children's rights. Female labor supply and development. Theories of disease and development. Prerequisite: 202, 203, 204, 210, 211, 212, 270, 271, 272.

Positive and normative theories of political economy. Positive topics include direct democracy, electoral competition, legislative policy making, agenda setting, lobbying, comparative constitutions, and intergenerational politics, with applications to income taxation, redistribution, and the size of government. Normative topics include social choice theory with and without interpersonal comparisons, Pareto efficiency with public goods, potential Pareto improvements, welfare measurement, cost benefit analysis, and analysis of economic policy reform.

Continuation of 220. Preparation for advanced research in applied political economy. Focus is on econometric methods (panel data, IV, treatment estimation, nonlinear models, random coefficients, duration models, factor analysis) with applications to economic and political development, economic voting, war and economic interdependence, corruption, legislative behavior, and social networks.

Upper-division undergraduates may enroll with consent of instructor. The roles played by the growth of scientific knowledge and technical progress in the development of industrial societies. Emphasis is on the interactions between science and technology, and the organizational factors which have influenced their effectiveness in contributing to productivity growth.

Theoretical and empirical analysis of innovation. Topics include optimal design of patents laws and alternative mechanisms to create incentives for innovation, such as technology transfer to developing countries, (compulsory) licensing, and patent pools. Emphasis on empirical analyses of both historical and contemporary data.

The role of economic history as a distinctive approach to the study of economics, using illustrations from U.S. history. Topics: historical and institutional foundations of the U.S. rise to world economic preeminence; economic causes and consequences of slavery; the origins and character of national systems of technology; the Great Depression of the 30s.

European economic history from middle ages to the twentieth century. Topics: competing hypotheses in explaining long term trends in economic growth and cross-country differences in long-term economic growth; formation, function, and persistence of institutions and organizations; the role of institutions and organizations (e.g. apprenticeship, servitude, partnerships, cooperatives, social networks, share cropping, and communes) as solutions to contractual problems; the economics of migration; the changing economic role of the family. Use of economic theory in guiding hypothesis testing, as well as construction of new datasets and the execution of empirical analysis.

Emphasis is on the formative period from the 11th to 18th centuries. Formation, function, and evolution of institutions; alternative conceptual frameworks such as neoclassical, transaction cost economics, institutionalism, and Marxism and neo-Marxism; game theory, mechanism design, and contract theory. Institutions related to trade organization, the organization of production, feudalism, mercantilism, and the state.