Course Overview 
                
                                          INTRODUCTION TO DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS 
                
                             Professor: Sergei Guriev 
                             Session 1 
                             Language of instruction: English 
                             Number of hours of class: 2.5 
                   
                   
                  Summary 
                   
                             Objective of the course:  
                             To introduce the students to modern development economics. We will discuss the state 
                             of development, the frontiers of development economics and its methodology. The 
                             students will learn the main facts and regularities of economic development and discuss 
                             the key challenges of economic development. 
                             Summary:  
                             Development economics – the study of economic and social transformation of low-
                             income and middle-income countries, home to four fifths of the world population – has 
                             itself experienced a dramatic revolution in the last twenty years. Modern development 
                             economics uses rigorous empirical methods, reaches across disciplinary borders and 
                             focuses on first order practical problems in developing countries. 
                             This class will introduce the students to the basic facts of economic development, 
                             explain what development economics does, what it knows and does not know, which 
                             problems have been solved and which are yet to be solved. 
                              
                   
                  Professor Biography 
                                                                                       
                                                                                      Sergei Guriev, Professor of Economics and Director of 
                                                                                      Graduate Programs in Economics, Sciences Po, Paris 
                                                                                      Sergei Guriev joined Sciences Po as a tenured professor of 
                                                                                      economics in 2013 after serving as the Rector of the New 
                                                                                      Economic School in Moscow in 2004-13. In 2016-19, he has 
                                                                                      been on leave from Sciences Po serving as the Chief 
                                                                                      Economist and Member of the Executive Committee of the 
                             European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). 
                             Professor Guriev’s research interests include political economics, economics of 
                             development, labor mobility, corporate governance and contract theory. He has 
                             published in international refereed journals including American Economic Review, 
                             Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of European 
                             Economic Association, Economic Journal, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of 
                             Economic Literature, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity and American Political 
                             Science Review.  
                              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
                              
                             Professor Guriev has been a board member of Sberbank, E.ON Russia, Alfa-
                             Strakhovanie Insurance Company, Russia Venture Company, Russian Home Mortgage 
                             Lending Agency, Russian Agricultural Bank, and the Dynasty Foundation. He has also 
                             been a member of the Scientific Council of Brussels-based think tank Bruegel and 
                             Academic Advisory Board of Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government. In 
                             2008-12, he was a member of the President of Russia’s Council for Science, Technology 
                             and Education. In 2006, he was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World 
                             Economic Forum. In 2009-11, he was included in the top 100 of the President of Russia’s 
                             Cadre Reserve. In 2016-17 he served as the President of the Society for Institutional and 
                             Organizational Economics. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the 
                             International Economic Association and a Global Member of the Trilateral Commission. 
                             He is also a Research Fellow and the Leader of the Research and Policy Network on 
                             Populism at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, London. He is an Ordinary 
                             Member of Academia Europeae.