You should try to read the relevant chapters from the main text before class. Depending on time constraints, we will cover some of the articles in more detail than others. I will indicate which ones we will focus on as the course proceeds.


0. Technical Review (Game Theory and Econometrics)
Ray, pp. 757-804

Part I:  Informal Credit Markets and Microfinance

1. Credit Market Problems in Developing Countries
Armendariz de Aghion and Murdoch, chs. 1 and 2
Ray ch. 14 (review)
"Credit Rationing in Developing Countries: An Overview of the Theory" by Ghosh, Mookherjee and Ray (2000)  in A Reader in Development Economics, London: Blackwell.

2. ROSCAs and Credit Cooperatives
Armendariz de Aghion and Murdoch, ch. 3
"The Economics of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations," by Besley, Coate and Loury (1993),  American Economic Review, vol. 83, pp. 792-810.
"Thy neighbour's keeper: The design of a credit cooperative with theory and a test," by Abhijit Banerjee,Timothy Besley and Timothy Guinnane (1994), Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 117 (3): pp. 983-995.

3. Group Lending and Enforcement
Armendariz de Aghion and Murdoch, chs. 4 and 5
"Screening by the Company you keep: Joint Liability lending and the peer selection effect" by Maitreesh Ghatak (2000), Economic Journal, vol. 110, pp. 601-631.
"Group Lending, Repayment Incentives and Social Collateral," by Besley and Coate (1995), Journal of Development Economics, vol. 46, pp. 1-18.
"Group versus Individual Liability: A Field Experiment in the Philippines," X. Gine and D. Karlan (2006), Working Paper.

4. Savings and Insurance
Armendariz de Aghion and Murdoch, ch. 6
"The Economics of ROSCAs and intra-household allocation," by Siwan Anderson and Jean-Marie Baland (2002), Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 117 (3): pp. 983-995.
"Reducing vulnerability: The demand for microinsurance," by Monique Cohen and Jennefer Sebstad (2003), MicroSave-Africa Report, March.
Ray, ch. 15

5. Economic and Social Impacts
Armendariz de Aghion and Murdoch, ch. 7 and 8
"Microfinance and Poverty: Evidence using panel data from Bangladesh," by Shahidur Khandker (2005), The World Bank Economic Review, vol. 19 (2), pp. 263-286.
"Microfinance in Northeast Thailand: Who Benefits and How Much?" by Brett Coleman (2006), World Development, vol. 34 (9), pp. 1612-38.

6. The Future of Microfinance Institutions
Armendariz de Aghion and Murdoch, ch. 9 and 10
Economist Survey on Microcredit
"Outreach, sustainability and leverage in monitored and peer-monitored lending," by Jonathan Conning (1999), Journal of Development Economics, vol. 60, pp. 51-77.
"Incentives between firms (and within)," by Robert Gibbons (2005), Management Science, Vol. 51, (1), pp. 2–17

Part II: Institutional and Political Economics of Development

7. Geography, History and Institutions
Bardhan, chs. 1 and 2
"Why do some Countries Produce so much more Output per Worker than Others?" by Hall and Jones (1999), Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 114 (1), pp.  83-116.
"The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," by D. Acemoglu, J. Robinson and S. Johnson (2001), American Economic Review
"Institutions Rule: The Primacy of Institutions over Geography and Integration in Economic Development," by Dani Rodrik, Arvind Subramanian, and Francesco Trebbi, 2002.
"Institutions Don't Rule: Direct Effects of Geography on Per Capita Income," Jeffrey Sachs (2003), NBER Working Paper 9490.
"Do Institutions Cause Growth?", by Edward Glaeser, Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes and Andrei Shleifer (2004), NBER Working Paper 10568.
"The Curse of Natural Resources" by Jeffrey Sachs and Andrew Warner (2001), European Economic Review, vol. 45, pp. 827-838.
"Institutions and the Resource Curse" by Mehlem, Moene and Torvik (2006), Economic Journal, vol. 116, pp. 1-20.
"Addressing the Natural Resource Curse: An Illustration from Nigeria" by Sala-i-Martin and Subramanian (2003), NBER Working Paper 9804