Content and objectives
Why are some nations rich and others poor? What explains the large differences in income levels  across countries? Why some developing countries grew rapidly in the last decades while others stagnated or shrank? This course approaches the ‘mystery of economic growth’ by exploring the political and institutional sources of poverty and prosperity. The course will be divided into four sections. In the first section, we will look at the relationship between democracy and development.  In the second, we will assess whether institutions are a significant determinant of economic performance. In the third section, we will review recent debates on good governance and corruption. In the last part of the course, we will discuss the role of social capital, ethnic conflict and globalization.

The aim of the course is to provide an overview of the issues and methods of comparative political economy. To that end, students attending this course will:  

• Discuss the analytical underpinnings of the new political economy of growth literature;

• Assess the policy implications of empirical works;

• Confront the methodological issues surrounding the conceptualization and measurement of politico-institutional variables in cross-country studies;

• Evaluate the most useful indicators and databases available for comparative research.

This course is explicitly oriented to discussing ways of improving participants' own research projects.

Literature
Basic: 

• Feng, Y. (2003), Democracy, Governance, and Economic Performance, MIT Press, chapters 3 and 4.

• Baum, M. and Lake, D. (2003), ‘The Political Economy of Growth: Democracy and human capital’, American Journal of Political Science 47(2): 333-47.

• Knack, S. and Keefer, P. (1995), ‘Institutions and Economic Performance’, Economics and Politics 7: 207-27 (also reprinted in Knack, S., ed., Democracy, Governance & Growth, University of Michigan Press, 2003).

• Glaeser et al. (2004), ‘Do Institutions Cause Growth?’ Journal of Economic Growth 9(3): 271-303.

• Kurtz, M. and Schrank, A. (2007), ‘Growth and Governance: Models, measures, and mechanisms’, Journal of Politics, 69: 538-54.

• Kaufmann et al. (2007), ‘Growth and Governance: A reply’, Journal of Politics, 69: 555-62.

• Knack, S. and Keefer, P. (2003), ‘Does Social Capital Have an Economic Payoff: A cross-country empirical investigation’, Quarterly Journal of Economics 112(4): 1252-88 (also reprinted in Knack, S., Democracy, Governance & Growth).

• Li, Q. and Reuveny, R. (2003), ‘Economic Globalization and Democracy: An empirical analysis’, British Journal of Political Science, 33: 29-54.

Additional:

• Acemoglu et al. (2001), ‘The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development’, American Economic Review, 91: 1369-1401.

• Alesina, A. (1998), ‘The Political Economy of High and Low Growth’, in Annual World Conference on Development Economics 1997, World Bank.

• Alesina et al. (2003), ‘Fractionalization’, Journal of Economic Growth, 8(2): 155-94.

• Bardhan, P. (2005), Scarcity, Conflicts, and Cooperation: Essays in the political and institutional economics of development, MIT Press.

• Bueno de Mesquita and Root (2000), Governing for Prosperity, Yale University Press.

• Chong, A. and Gradstein, M. (2007), ‘Inequality and Institutions’, The Review of Economic and Statistics, 89: 454-65.

• Kaufmann, D. and Kraay, A. (2008), ‘Governance Indicators: Where are we, where should we be going?’, World Bank Research Observer, 23 (2008), 1-30.

• Lange and Rueschemeyer (2005), States and Development, Palgrave Macmillan.

• Mauro, P. (1995), ‘Corruption and Growth’, Quarterly Journal of Economics 110(3): 681-712.

• North, D. (2005), Understanding the Process of Economic Change, Princeton Univ. Press.

• Olson, M, (1996), ‘Big Bills Left on the Sidewalk: Why some nations are rich, and others poor’, Journal of Economic Perspectives 10(2): 3-24 (also reprinted in Knack, Democracy, Governance & Growth).

• Persson, T. and Tabellini, G. (2002), The Economic Effects of Constitutions, MIT Press.

• Przeworski, A. (2004), ‘The Last Instance: Are institutions the primary cause of economic development?’, European Journal of Sociology, 45: 165-88. 

• Przeworski et al. (2000), Democracy and Development: Political institutions and well-being in the world, 1950-1990, Cambridge University Press.

• Robinson, J. (2006), ‘Economic Development and Democracy’, Annual Review of Political Science 9: 503-527.

• Rodrik, D. (2007), One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions and Economic Growth, Princeton University Press.

• Rodrik et al. (2004), ‘Institutions Rule: The primacy of institutions over geography and integration in economic development’, Journal of Economic Growth 9(2): 131-65.