LFU:online

Students advance their knowledge in political science by specialising in different areas of the field.

This course studies political and economic development from a political economy perspective. It revolves around the questions: Why don’t poor countries catch up? Why do some countries strive while others fail? What is the micro-foundation of development? With a particular focus on (a) the crucial role of institutions and (b) the behavioral micro-foundation of development we investigate which factors account for economic growth, democratization and regime stability.

Methodisch behandelt der Kurs eine Vielzahl von Ansätzen wie Regressionsanalyse, Mehrebenenmodelle, Feldexperimente, Laborexperimente und qualitative Fallstudien im Rahmen der im Kurs besprochenen Literatur.

Term paper + presentation

North, Douglass C. and Barry R. Weingast. (1989) “Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England”, Journal of Economic History 49: 803-32.
Acemoglu, D. and J. Robinson, (2012) Why Nations Fail. Profile Books LTD: London.
Glaeser, E., La Porta R., Lopez-de-Silanes F, Shleifer A. (2004) “Do Institutions Cause Growth?” Journal of Economic Growth 9: 271-303.

positive completion of compulsory modules 1 to 3