University of California at Berkeley                                                           ARE 251/Econ 270A, Fall 2016

                                                                                                                             Elisabeth Sadoulet

                                                                                                                                                     

MICROECONOMICS OF DEVELOPMENT

 (This includes all papers referred to in class, required readings marked with *)

 

I.  Behavior under risk, response to shocks

Dercon, Stefan. ÒFate and Fear: Risk and its Consequences in AfricaÓ, (2008) Journal of African Economies, December, vol. 17(Supplement 2): ii97-ii127 link

Response to shocks:

Kinnan Cynthia. ÒDistinguishing barriers to insurance in Thai villagesÓ, Northwestern University, 2014

Laczo, Sarolta, ÒOn Risk Sharing in Village Economies: Structural Estimation and Testing,Ó Journal of the European Economic Association, 2015,13(2), 265–292

Udry, C. (1994) ÒRisk and insurance in a rural credit market: An empirical investigation in North NigeriaÓ, Review of Economic Studies, 61:495-526.

Fafchamps, Marcel, Christopher Udry and Katherine Czukas. 1998 "Drought and Saving in West Africa: Are Livestock a Buffer Stock?", Journal of Development Economics, 55(2): 273-305 link

Janzen, Sarah and Michael R. Carter (2014). "After the Drought: The Impact of Microinsurance on Consumption Smoothing and Asset Protection," NBER Working Paper 19702 link

Kochar, Anjini. ÒSmoothing Consumption by Smoothing Income: Hours-of-Work Responses to Idiosyncratic Agricultural Shocks in Rural India.Ó Review of Economics and Statistics (1999), Vol. 81, No. 1: 50-61. link

Jayachandran, Seema, ÒSelling Labor Low: Wage Responses to Productivity Shocks in Developing Countries.Ó Journal of Political Economy, volume 114 (2006), pp. 538–575. link

Welfare effects:

*Maccini, Sharon and Dean Yang. 2009 Under the Weather: Health, Schooling, and Economic Consequences of Early-Life Rainfall, American Economic Review, 99(3): 1006-1026. link

Zhang, Jing and Lixin Colin Xu. 2016. ÒThe long-run effects of treated water on education: The rural drinking water program in China.Ó Journal of Development Economics 122:1–15.

Akresh, Richard, Sonia Bhalotra, Marinella Leone, and Una Okonkwo Osili. 2012. ÒWar and Stature: Growing Up during the Nigerian Civil WarÓ American Economic Review, 102(3): 273-77.  [several other similar papers by Akresh and co-authors]

Behavior under risk:

Rosenzweig, Mark R & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1993. "Credit Market Constraints, Consumption Smoothing, and the Accumulation of Durable Production Assets in Low-Income Countries: Investment in Bullocks in India," Journal of Political Economy, 101(2): 223-44, April. link

Fafchamps, Marcel, Jan Willem Gunning, and Remco Ostendorp. 2000. ÒInventories and Risk in African ManufacturingÓ. The Economic Journal, 110: 861-93. link

Karlan, Dean, Robert Osei, Isaac Osei-Akoto and Christopher Udry. 2013. Agricultural Decisions after Relaxing Credit and Risk Constraints. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(2), pp. 597-652.

Emerick, K., de Janvry, A., Sadoulet, E. and Dar, M.H., 2016. Technological innovations, downside risk, and the modernization of agriculture. American Economic Review, 106(6), pp.1537-61.

*Rosenzweig, Mark R & Chris Udry, 2014. Forecasting Profitability, Yale University - Economic Growth Center link

 

II Imperfection in Credit Market and Evidence on Credit Constraint

III. Microfinance Institutions

IV. Technology Adoption

V. Property Rights

VI Recent Development and Issues in Index Based Insurance

VII. The Role of Public Goods and Infrastructure