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JohnMcClane · 2009 October 27th, 01:08 PM

Like a lot of people here, I am mainly interested in development. Within development, I am most interested in micro-development (theory). Do you guys know of programs in the top 30 that have people doing exciting work in this area? I can only name Boston, NYU and maybe Cornell and please don't tell me about Harvard and MIT, I am not wasting my money by applying there. Also, does Berkeley and Michigan have people doing work in this area?

Gecko · 2009 October 27th, 02:51 PM

Princeton has Dixit. U Michigan is pretty strong in development seeing that they placed one candidate in princeton doing development~

JohnMcClane · 2009 October 27th, 03:28 PM

Dixit is awesome. His work on alternative modes of governance is very exciting. I thought Michigan was more empirical and not theoretical?

asquare · 2009 October 27th, 03:35 PM

JohnMcClane, I'd agree that U-Mich is more empirical than theoretical when it comes to development.

z109620 · 2009 October 27th, 06:14 PM

LSE is suppose to be one of the best Development Theory schools out there. I would also look at Oxford and Yale (however they are probably a little on the applied side of things)

z109620 · 2009 October 28th, 12:42 AM

Also Berkeley is probably not the best place for development theory, while Bardhan is great, he is getting up there in age and I really don't know how much involvement he has in the program is any more. Plus, he is so famous that he is always somewhere else (at LSE until 2011). Ted Miguel is really Berkeley Econ only other development guy and he is applied (and from what I have heard very busy). Of course their ARE has some giants (de Janvry, Sadoulet) but they are applied (and also getting up their in age).

good_tea · 2009 October 28th, 11:38 AM

From what I understand, pure development theory is not such a big topic right now, and that is why it is hard to find places that are good at it. The places you (and others) mentioned seem to be reasonable but they also only have one or two people working on development theory: BU has Mookherjee and Newman, NYU has Ray, Cornell has Basu, Berkeley has Bardhan, etc... [I don't know much about LSE]

You would perhaps be better off choosing places that are good at aspects of micro-theory that are commonly used in development theory, especially contract theory since a lot of classic development theory topics (like agrarian contracts and rural credit markets) are mostly based on contract theory. Political economy and trade are applied fields that are closely connected with development but where theoretical research is much more common than in development, so that might be another direction.

JohnMcClane · 2009 October 28th, 07:11 PM

z109620: Thanks for the response. I can tell that you are into micro-development (applied). Can you please name me some people in LSE who are doing micro development (theory) work?

good tea: Thanks for the response. Can you please tell me about other aspects of micro-theory that are commonly used in development theory (apart from contract theory) and can you also please name me some schools that are good at it? Also, what are some schools good at political economy? trade?

z109620 · 2009 October 28th, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnMcClane

z109620: Thanks for the response. I can tell that you are into micro-development (applied). Can you please name me some people in LSE who are doing micro development (theory) work?

Unfortunately I don't know who their theorist are (as I am an applied guy) so unless someone else knows you might have to do a bit of digging. However, the reason I said that LSE is good in development theory is an old colleague I was talking mentioned it (just in case you thought I just randomly said it). That being said, Tim Besley probably is LSE's top development guy and I think he does some theory (mostly concerning political and public economics).

As a side note, good_tea mentioned, development theory is really not too big nowadays and I think that is unfortunate. It seems like development nowadays focus mainly on 2 thing: studying human capital (i.e. education and health) because of the simple notion that better human capital promotes growth and discussing aid (which I feel is relatively unimportant). So maybe some more good theoretic work in time inconsistency, institutions, natural resource management, rural financial markets and agriculture would help change the tides a bit, as these are all giant problems that are only now starting to gain traction in main stream economics. Anyways good luck.

Gecko · 2009 October 29th, 03:01 AM

Princeton has a joint program in political economy (PE) ~

As for LSE, Persson does solid work on PE.

UPenn - Merlo.

NYU - Easterly.

2009 October 27th, 01:08 PM	#1 (permalink)
JohnMcClane Eager! Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 41	Programs in the top 30 for micro-development (theory) Like a lot of people here, I am mainly interested in development. Within development, I am most interested in micro-development (theory). Do you guys know of programs in the top 30 that have people doing exciting work in this area? I can only name Boston, NYU and maybe Cornell and please don't tell me about Harvard and MIT, I am not wasting my money by applying there. Also, does Berkeley and Michigan have people doing work in this area?

2009 October 27th, 06:14 PM	#5 (permalink)
z109620 Eager! Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Illinois Posts: 75	LSE is suppose to be one of the best Development Theory schools out there. I would also look at Oxford and Yale (however they are probably a little on the applied side of things) _ _ _ _ SIG _ _ _ _ My only goal in economics is to one day become Mr. Esther Duflo

2009 October 28th, 12:42 AM	#6 (permalink)
z109620 Eager! Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Illinois Posts: 75	Also Berkeley is probably not the best place for development theory, while Bardhan is great, he is getting up there in age and I really don't know how much involvement he has in the program is any more. Plus, he is so famous that he is always somewhere else (at LSE until 2011). Ted Miguel is really Berkeley Econ only other development guy and he is applied (and from what I have heard very busy). Of course their ARE has some giants (de Janvry, Sadoulet) but they are applied (and also getting up their in age). _ _ _ _ SIG _ _ _ _ My only goal in economics is to one day become Mr. Esther Duflo

2009 October 29th, 03:01 AM	#10 (permalink)
Gecko This user's posts are moderated. Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 1,081	Princeton has a joint program in political economy (PE) ~ As for LSE, Persson does solid work on PE. UPenn - Merlo. NYU - Easterly. Last edited by Gecko : 2009 October 29th at 03:09 AM. Reason: left out some schools

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2009 October 27th, 02:51 PM	#2 (permalink)
Gecko This user's posts are moderated. Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 1,081	Princeton has Dixit. U Michigan is pretty strong in development seeing that they placed one candidate in princeton doing development~

2009 October 27th, 03:28 PM	#3 (permalink)
JohnMcClane Eager! Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 41	Dixit is awesome. His work on alternative modes of governance is very exciting. I thought Michigan was more empirical and not theoretical?

2009 October 27th, 03:35 PM	#4 (permalink)
asquare TestMagic Guru Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Ann Arbor Posts: 1,725	JohnMcClane, I'd agree that U-Mich is more empirical than theoretical when it comes to development.

2009 October 28th, 11:38 AM	#7 (permalink)
good_tea I JUST got here. Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 24	From what I understand, pure development theory is not such a big topic right now, and that is why it is hard to find places that are good at it. The places you (and others) mentioned seem to be reasonable but they also only have one or two people working on development theory: BU has Mookherjee and Newman, NYU has Ray, Cornell has Basu, Berkeley has Bardhan, etc... [I don't know much about LSE] You would perhaps be better off choosing places that are good at aspects of micro-theory that are commonly used in development theory, especially contract theory since a lot of classic development theory topics (like agrarian contracts and rural credit markets) are mostly based on contract theory. Political economy and trade are applied fields that are closely connected with development but where theoretical research is much more common than in development, so that might be another direction.

2009 October 28th, 07:11 PM	#8 (permalink)
JohnMcClane Eager! Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 41	z109620: Thanks for the response. I can tell that you are into micro-development (applied). Can you please name me some people in LSE who are doing micro development (theory) work? good tea: Thanks for the response. Can you please tell me about other aspects of micro-theory that are commonly used in development theory (apart from contract theory) and can you also please name me some schools that are good at it? Also, what are some schools good at political economy? trade?

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