You can choose to write on any one of the following topics listed below related to development. You can write on any related issues or questions to the given topics.
Note that readings suggested are general readings, a possible place to start your research. Once you have a general idea of the topic and question you want to address. If you want to discuss next set of readings you are encouraged to discuss them.
Topic 1. Religion, ethnicity, culture and development. (suggested first reading: S.O. Becker, L. Woessmann Was Weber wrong? A human capital theory of protestant economic history. Q. J. Econ., 124 (2) (2009), pp. 531-596). Suggested Key words: Religion, culture, trust, historical institutions.
Topic 2. Inequality and development. (suggested first readings: Piketty, Thomas. ”Social mobility and redistributive politics.” The Quarterly journal of economics 110.3 (1995): 551-584. Economic Crises and Inequality. A. B. Atkin- son and S. Morelli, 2003. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract id=2351471, Anand, Sudhir, and Amartya Sen. ”Human development and economic sustainability.” World development 28.12 (2000): 2029-2049). Suggested Key words.trends in inequality, e↵ects of inequality, human capital accumulation.
Topic 3. Violence, conflict and development. (Suggested first reading: Civil
War , C Blattman, and Ed Miguel. Journal of Economic Literature 2010, 48:1,
3-57) Suggested Key words: welfare loss, trust, resource, fragmentation.
Topic 4. Land and Property Rights (Suggested readings: See Special Edition of Journal of Development Economics on Land and Property Rights, Edited by Dilip Mookherjee, Christopher Udry Volume 110, Pages 1-344 (September 2014).
Topic 5. Poverty Traps. (Kraay, Aart, and David McKenzie. ”Do poverty traps exist? Assessing the evidence.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 28.3 (2014): 127-48.). Suggested Key words: growth, convergence, persistence of poverty, aid.
Topic 6. Migration and demography. (suggested readings; See http://cerdi.org/en/program.html
Also see earlier work by Kelley, Allen C. ”Economic consequences of population
change in the Third World.” Journal of Economic Literature 26.4 (1988): 1685-
1728.). Also Kremer, Michael. (1993). “Population Growth and Technological
1Change: One Million B.C. to 1990,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 108 (3):
681-716. Suggested Key words: Dual Economy.
Topic 7. Randomised control trials and if it is an e↵ective methodology in development economics. (Suggested Reading: Bouguen, Adrien, Yue Huang, Michael Kremer, and Edward Miguel.
”Using randomized controlled trials to estimate long-run impacts in development economics.” Annual Review of Economics 11 (2019): 523-561.) Search words; Randomised control trials, methodology in development economics, natural experiments.
You do not have to follow the suggested readings, you can choose any issue or question related to the topic. If you want papers related to your interest .
Note that the listed topics are general, which should allow you to choose and write on wide range of issues on any topic.
You can focus on one country or write a more general essay on the topic.
You can also chose to focus on a particular aspect of the problem or solution.
If you are interested in any other topic not listed here. Everyone is encouraged to let me know the topic on which you want to write
your essay)
The best place to start your search is Google Scholar.Some authors and resources which may be useful, for the topics above.
1. Paul Collier, Oxford. (http://users.ox.ac.uk/ ̃econpco/)
2. Chris Blattman (chrisblattman.com)
3. Esther Duflo (https://economics.mit.edu/faculty/eduflo)
4. Ted Miguel, Berkeley. (http://emiguel.econ.berkeley.edu/)
5. Pascaline Dupas, Stanford. (http://web.stanford.edu/ ̃pdupas/)
6. Dean Karlan, Yale. (http://karlan.yale.edu/)
7. James Robinson, Chicago. http://scholar.harris.uchicago.edu/jamesrobinson
8. Tim Besley, LSE. (http://www.lse.ac.uk/economics/people/facultyPages/TimBesley.aspx)
9. Debraj Ray, NYU. (http://www.econ.nyu.edu/user/debraj/)
10. Michael Kremer, Harvard (https://scholar.harvard.edu/kremer/home)
11. J- PAL. An excellent resource for studies done on various policies to fight
poverty across the word. (https://www.povertyactionlab.org/)
12. International Growth Centre. Another excellent source of research done on
various policies to combat poverty in various parts of the world (http://www.theigc.org/)
13. World Bank (http://www.worldbank.org/en/research)
14. Research Page at Oxford International Development Economics. (http://www.qeh.ox.ac.uk/)
15. Centre of International Development, Harvard. (https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/cid)
