France

This course explores the theory and practice of market design. Economists study market mechanisms, and are also involved in the design of markets. Key examples include auctions to sell electricity, radio spectrum, or procurement contracts; mechanisms to sell internet advertising; online marketplaces; algorithms to match candidates to jobs, students to schools, or allocate courses to students; organ exchange systems. The field of market design studies how to choose the rules of mechanisms that solve such allocation problems, or how to organize successful marketplaces. It builds on the tools of game theory and mechanism design. This course explains the underlying theory in an intuitive way, and discusses actual designs. The goal is to understand why some market institutions succeed and other fail. The course is based on lectures to expose the theory, and class discussion of applications.

This course covers the history, theories, institutions, and policies of economic development. It begins by considering development from classical Western perspectives (liberalism, neoliberalism, and the Washington Consensus), burgeoning Eastern perspectives (the “East Asian model,” the Beijing Consensus), as well as various heterodox traditions (postcolonialism, Marxism). The course then explores the doers of development in today's global economy and international system: the Bretton Woods and multilateral institutions, the private sector and private philanthropists, as well as individual countries such as the United States and China. Finally, the course dives deep into the particular problems and policies that define global development in low-income countries today: how they meet their domestic energy needs and attain a clean energy transition; how they meet their domestic food needs and maximize their agricultural export revenues; how they build the infrastructure they require for their rapidly growing populations and economies; and how they attract or create good jobs and high wages to ensure stable and equitable growth.