This course is designed to help you answer some of today’s most pressing questions: Why do some countries provide their citizens more opportunities in life than others? How can we set up bureaucracies in a way so that they yield good outcomes for citizens? Why do some of the most pressing societal challenges - from climate change to the consequences of AI - most adversely affect populations that are already underserved? Which development projects work, why, and how can we know?

This class focuses on four big themes: First, you will learn about short- and long-term drivers of economic development. Second, you will learn why states differ in terms of bureaucratic quality and which difference this makes for development. Third, we will have sessions on particularly pressing topics in the political economy of development: gender inequality, climate change, and the impacts of Artificial Intelligence. Fourth, we will explore how we as scientists can make statements about which development projects work and which don’t.