Explores the foundations of policy making in developing countries. Goal is to spell out various policy options and to quantify the trade-offs between them. Special emphasis on education, health, gender, fertility, adoption of technological innovation, and the markets for land, credit, and labor.

This course in organizational economics prepares doctoral students for further study in the field. The course introduces the classic papers and some recent research. The material is organized into the following modules: boundaries of the firm, employment in organizations, decision-making in organizations, and structures and processes in organizations. Each class session covers a few leading papers. This course was joint-taught between faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. The Harvard course is Economics 2670 Organizational Economics.

This course will provide a solid foundation in probability and statistics for economists and other social scientists. We will emphasize topics needed for further study of econometrics and provide basic preparation for 14.32. Topics include elements of probability theory, sampling theory, statistical estimation, and hypothesis testing.

Provides a historical perspective on the determinants and consequences of economic growth. Changes in population, education, technology, institutions, business organization, financial markets, labor markets, and government regulation are examined. Focus is primarily on the US.

This course is an introduction to labor economics with an emphasis on applied microeconomic theory and empirical analysis. We are especially interested in the link between research and public policy. Topics to be covered include: labor supply and demand, taxes and transfers, minimum wages, immigration, human capital, education production, inequality, discrimination, unions and strikes, and unemployment.

Dynamic models of growth and development emphasizing migration, modernization, and technological change; static and dynamic models of political economy; the dynamics of income distribution and institutional change; firm structure in developing countries; development, transparency, and functioning of financial markets; privatization; and banks and credit market institutions in emerging markets.