SoSe 24 – Seminar “Topics in Empirical Economics: Firms and Development”

Description: Firms provide employment and income for the majority of households in the world. Thus, firm-related policies that increase productivity can potentially play a central role in eliminating extreme poverty, generating growth and raising standards of living in developing countries. In the seminar we cover recent academic work on why aggregate productivity is low in developing countries and what policymakers might be able to do about it. Topics include the role of poor business skills and management, the lack of modern technologies, the misallocation of resources across firms including labour and capital, poor institutional environments that make contracting difficult, limited market access, and both externalities and coordination failures. 

Prerequisites: The seminar exposes participants to academic work at the current research frontier. It is particularly suited for students with a strong background and interest in empirical microeconomics.

Organisation: Interested students can register for the seminar until  March 15 by sending an email to tobias.boehm@uni-muenster.de. If the seminar is oversubscribed, preference is given to students with a strong background in empirical microeconomics.  An introductory meeting takes place in the beginning of April. To obtain credits, participants have to write a seminar paper (15-20 pages) and give a presentation (presumably around mid June).

In case of any question, please feel free to send an email to tobias.boehm@uni-muenster.de.