Africa in the World Economy

By William Easterly, Professor of Economics (Joint with Africa House, Co-director of Development Research Institute at NYU)

This class asks: Why is Africa poor? What must we do to end poverty in Africa? Who is we?

There is no textbook for the class, only the articles and chapter extracts below. The list of readings is longer than what you are required to know. You are required only to know what is presented in class lectures. I will distribute copies of slides and lecture notes for each lecture.

Introduction: African stereotypes and reality

Slides only

The history of the development idea in Africa

CHAPTER FOUR: RACE, WAR, AND THE FATE OF AFRICA, in
Easterly, William (2014-03-04). The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor (p. 81ff). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

Pre-colonial history and African development

Comin, Diego, William Easterly, and Erick Gong, “Was the Wealth of Nations Determined in 1000 B.C.?”, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 2 (July 2010): 65–97

http://williameasterly.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/60_easterly_comin_gong_wealthofnations_prp.pdf

Putterman, Louis and David Weil “Post-1500 Population Flows and the Long Run Determinants of Economic Growth and Inequality”, Quarterly Journal of Economics 125:4, November 2010, http://www.nber.org/papers/w14448
Wacziarg, Romain and Enrico Spolaore, “The Diffusion of Development”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2009, vol. 124, no. 2

The slave trade and colonialism

CHAPTER SEVEN INSTITUTIONS: WE OPPRESS THEM IF WE CAN, in Easterly, William (2014-03-04). The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor (p. 155ff). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

Nunn, Nathan, “The Long-Term Effects of Africa’s Slave Trades,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123 (2008), 139–176.

http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/nunn/files/empirical_slavery.pdf

Sacerdote, Bruce. “Slavery and the Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital.”The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 87, Issue 2 – May, 2005. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~bsacerdo/wpapers/Slavery3.pdf

Nathan Nunn, “Historical Legacies: A Model Linking Africa’s Past to its Current Underdevelopment,” Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 83, No. 1, May 2007, pp. 157-175, http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/nunn/files/legacy_jde.pdf

Alesina, Alberto, William Easterly and Janina Matuszeski, Artificial States, Journal of the European Economic Association, 9, no. 2, (April 2011): 246-277.

Culture and development in Africa

Stelios Michalopoulos and Elias Papaioannou, National Institutions and Subnational Development in Africa, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2014, 129 (1): 151-213

Nunn, Nathan, and Leonard Wantchekon, “The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the Evolution of Mistrust in Africa: An Empirical Analysis,” American Economic Review, 2011, Vol 11, No 7, 5221-3252. http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/nunn/files/Trust_AER_Rev2.pdf