The course introduces students to Comparative Economics, discussing the origin of the field and its specificities: i.e. regarding economic systems as complex bundles of institutions and indicators of systems success as being multiple. It will focus on investigating development in a broad sense and in context, i.e. giving a large place to Institutional and Cultural factors. The course will be taught through interactive lectures with extensive in class discussions (2h every week in class), personal study (weekly readings and e-learning, plus work on essay for assessment) and complementary online tasks (quizzes and videos on study skills).

The first part of the course (weeks 1 to 3) will present on overview of the origin of the field, in particular discussing the key legacies of Comparative Economic Systems and Transition Economics for the comparative approach.  We will discuss “systems” as complex bundles of institutions, and define development as the pursuit of a broad set of objectives, including but going beyond economic growth. A key focus will be to discuss state and market failures.

We will then explore in turns the role of policies, formal institution and culture for development, in three successive 2-week long sections. In each case, we will discuss definitions, measurements, and possible overlap and interplay between these 3 entities. The objective will be to engage in a critical discussion of policies, institutions and culture as drivers of development, through theoretical discussion in lectures and in-depth analysis of specific “case-studies” in in-class discussions. We will for example discuss the growth-democracy nexus, discussing vicious and virtuous circles. We will discuss gender roles as responding to structural factors, but also as slow-moving social norms. While the specific case studies discussed will change over time to reflect on the latest research, the key learning objectives of articulating development paths through a context rich analysis will remain. Overall, we will conclude on institutional change as potentially endogenous, as well as driven by shocks or “critical junctures”.

The course will often focus on the recent experience of transition economies (in particular CEEC, FSU and China), but examples, policies and practices in other low and middle-income countries will also be discussed.