Teaching
Political Economy of Development
This graduate-level course provides an introduction to political economy from the perspective of empirical development economics. It covers a range of papers to give graduate students an overview of how the field has evolved over the past thirty years, and equips them with an understanding of commonly used empirical tools and some economic theoretical models.
Broad topics covered: bureaucrat and politician selection and incentives, corruption, clientelism, decentralisation, collective action and protest, ethnic divisions and historical persistence.
World Hunger, Population, and Food Supplies
This class for undergraduate students covers several topics related to hunger and undernourishment. The course starts by introducing the definitions and measurement of these issues, then moves on to examine economic frameworks used to analyze the world food problem. Finally, the class discusses both national and international food policy aspects.
Textbook: The World Food Problem: Toward Understanding and Ending Undernutrition in the Developing World (6th edition), by Howard D. Leathers and Ken Leonard.
From Poverty to Progress in the World’s Largest Democracy: India’s Political Economy in Transition
India, the largest country in the world, is home to nearly 18% of the global population — and its growth and progress have profound implications for humanity’s trajectory in the 21st century. This course explores India’s past, present, and future through the lens of political economy, examining the incentives of politicians and bureaucrats alongside questions of local governance and social movements.
The course is structured in three parts — the state, the citizens, and the economy. Students learn to think like political economists: applying economic concepts to state-building, governance, and the dynamics between state and market; exploring citizen-centric action such as voting and collective action; and tackling significant economic issues, from climate change to the transformation of India’s economy.