1 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER TOPICS IN DEVELOPMENT, HISTORY & POLITICAL ECONOMY ECON 4774 ONLINE SYLLABUS, FALL 2020 INSTRUCTOR: PROF. MURAT IYIGUN Email [email protected] Mobile (720) 785-4085 • This is my cell phone number. Call or text anytime between 8am – 8pm MTN. I sometimes have my phone turned off during the middle of the day, but leave a message when it is a good time to get a hold of you and I will call you back. Office Hours • Online Office Hours: Tuesdays 12:30-2 pm using Zoom (https://cuboulder.zoom.us/j/92613356630) INSTRUCTOR BIO Murat Iyigun, PhD, Brown University, 1995, is a professor specializing in the economics of the family, economic development & growth and cliometrics. He is a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn, Germany and a founding Fellow of the Association for Analytical Learning on Islam and Muslim Societies (AALIMS). Prior to joining the faculty in 2000, he served as a staff economist at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. Some of Professor Iyigun’s research has been published in top economics journals, such as the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economic Studies and other leading journals. He is currently the co-editor of the Journal of Demographic Economics (JODE) published by Cambridge University Press and an editorial board member of Journal of Economics, Management & Religion (JEMAR) by Elsevier Press. His general-interest book, “War Peace and Prosperity in the Name of God,” was published by the University of Chicago Press in March 2015. TERM START: August 31, 2020 TERM END: December 13, 2020 COURSE WEBSITE Canvas is our class website: • Login using your University of Colorado Boulder identikey and password https://canvas.colorado.edu/ • Under Course List, click “ECON 4774-100: Topics in Economic Development, History and Political Economy • Note: all email correspondence will be through your CU Boulder email address. o Do not use the Canvas email or messages, it is not checked. COURSE DESCRIPTION Sustained economic growth is a relatively recent economic phenomenon that came about due to the Industrial Revolution and as a result of which the standards of living improved dramatically in the Anglo-Saxon West since the 18th century. However, global inequality has also risen to unprecedented levels because other parts of the world still significantly lag the West in economic, social and political terms. In this class, we shall study the comparative development paths of Anglo-Saxon Europe and the Middle East. In doing so, we shall primarily focus on an expansive list of influential and relevant articles published and the four books required for the class.COURSE PREREQUISITES Requires prerequisite course of ECON 3070 or ECON 3080 (minimum grade C-). COURSE OBJECTIVES By the end of the course you should be able to: • Identify the basic facts related to the evolution of the world income distribution, inequality across countries and demographic trends related to economic development. • Study & comprehend the 3 versions of the neoclassical economic growth model, its testable implications. • Evaluate what the relevant data say about the neoclassical growth model’s testable hypotheses. • Identify what are the relative roles of factor accumulation and TFP improvements in sustaining economic growth and development. • Understand the main arguments offered by the seminal literature on the role of institutions in development. • Analyze the existing empirical work on the role of institutions and their shortcomings. • Investigate the important empirical work on the role of culture in economic development. • Study & determine the key empirical work on the nexus of institutions versus culture in economic development. • Know how culture generally and religion more specifically came to bear on institutional change and sociopolitical and economic progress in Europe and the Middle East historically. • Distill what the above mean for interpreting the importance of institutions versus culture in economic development. REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS Textbooks (required): (1) The Rise and Decline of Nations by Mancur Olson (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press), 1984, reprint. (2) War, Peace and Prosperity in the Name of God by Murat Iyigun (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press), 2015. (3) A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy by Joel Mokyr, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), 2017. (4) Rulers, Religion and Riches by Jared Rubin (Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press), 2017. Course Website: https://canvas.colorado.edu/ (Canvas) Grades and any further additional readings will be posted on Canvas. Please check Canvas frequently for any relevant notifications/changes that may occur throughout the course. SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS Supplemental readings and other materials will be provided in Canvas system, via the CU Library electronic reserve, or by links to websites. INSTRUCTIONAL METHODOLOGY AND DELIVERY This course is delivered via distance education format using the CU Canvas system. This format will use a combination of readings, online discussion, and other web-based resources. You will interact with the instructor and other students using the communication functions provided by Canvas. You will submit assignments in accordance with the course outline using Canvas. COURSE PRESENTATION AND PROCEDURES There will be 16 modules corresponding to the 14 weeks of the course (one module per week except during the midterm and final weeks when we have two modules). You should proceed through one modules per week, which will be comprised of readings from the course texts, supplemental class notes, graded discussion questions, homeworks and 23 quizzes, exams, and various outside sources of information such as additional readings and video content, among other content. During the midterm and final weeks, you will cover exam review and preparation modules (Modules 7 and 15) in the first part of the relevant weeks. Then, you will take the exams in the second part of the week (Modules 8 and 16). COURSE OUTLINE Review the separate weekly class schedule found on Canvas under “Syllabus” link. CLASS PARTICIPATION This course is designed to engage you through class discussions on the topics covered in the course materials. It is important that you participate in class discussions to facilitate learning by other students and gain exposure to different viewpoints of other students in the class. It is therefore necessary to participate throughout the week in the discussion questions, not wait until the last minute to post on discussion topics. EVALUATION AND GRADING Course grades will be determined by the completion of assignments, exams, and discussions, as shown below: Assignment* Frequency GRADE PERCENTAGE In-Video Quizzes 12 10% Article Discussion Postings 4 15% Book Discussion Postings 4 15% Problem Sets 2 10% Midterm Exam 1 20% Cumulative Final Exam 1 30% TOTAL 100% *Keep a copy of all work created for the course, including work submitted through Canvas. COURSE GRADING CRITERIA Grade Percentage Grade Indicates A >90 Excellent A- 89.99-87 B+ 86.99-84 B 83.99-80 Above Average B- 79.99-76 C+ 75.99-72 C 71.99-68 Average C- 67.99-64 D+ 63.99-60 D 59.99-56 Below Average D- 55.99-52