Students line up for lunch at the kitchen of Longonot High School in Kenya. (Photo courtesy of teachandlearn on Flickr. CC-BY-NC-SA.)
Instructor(s)
Prof. Benjamin Olken
MIT Course Number
14.75
As Taught In
Fall 2012
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Features
Course Description
This course explores the relationship between political institutions and economic development, covering key theoretical issues as well as recent empirical evidence. Topics include corruption, democracy, dictatorship, and war. Discusses not just what we know on these topics, but how we know it, covering how to craft a good empirical study or field experiment and how to discriminate between reliable and unreliable evidence.