Development

Faculty specializing in Development Economics at UC San Diego include Professors Craig McIntosh (IRPS), Karthik Muralidharan (Economics), Krislert Samphantharak (IRPS) and Christopher Woodruff (IRPS). Other faculty with interests in Development include Roger Gordon(Economics), Gordon Hanson (Economics and IR/PS), Marc Muendler (Economics), and James Rauch(Economics). The graduate development sequence consists of three courses covering empirical methods, macro topics, and micro topics. Empirical methods are taught by faculty in the Labor Economics group, macro topics are taught by Professors Samphantharak and Woodruff, and micro topics are taught by Professors McIntosh and Muralidharan. The faculty members will also offer several elective courses on a rotating basis. Finally, there is a weekly seminar (joint with International Economics) that interested students are strongly encouraged to attend.

The faculty in the development group have very diverse interests that overlap with several of the other applied economics research groups at UC San Diego.

Craig McIntosh studies the design of institutions that promote the provision of financial services to micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries and has conducted field evaluations of innovations in microfinance in Central America and East Africa. He is currently working on projects analyzing the impact of credit bureaus in Guatemala and the introduction of mobile telephones in rural Rwanda.

Karthik Muralidharan studies service delivery in health and education in developing countries through randomized field experiments, and has conducted experimental evaluations of the impacts of teacher performance pay, teacher contractual structure, and school grants on learning outcomes in India. He is currently working on projects analyzing the effects of school choice in India, and the effects of teacher training, certification, and salary increases in Indonesia.

Krislert Samphantharak's research applies frameworks and theories in corporate finance and asset pricing to study household finance in developing economies. His current research on village economies in Thailand looks at diversification of household occupations, volatility and smoothing of household income and consumption, and risks and returns to household investment. He also studies the role of networks in family businesses and corporate restructuring in emerging economies.

Chris Woodruff's research focuses on development of the private sector in low-income countries. He has examined use of informal contracting in governing trading relations between firms and how the institutional environment affects the willingness of entrepreneurs to invest in their enterprises. Recent work in Sri Lanka has examined rates of return to incremental capital investments in microenterprises and the recovery of these enterprises from the 2004 tsunami. Geographically, his research spans a broad area of the developing world, including Mexico, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Ghana, and Eastern Europe.