ECON 282 - Economic Governance & Institutional Design

Credits: 4
Planned Offering: Spring 2013 and alternate years

Prerequisite: Instructor consent. Spurred by developmental disasters in the third world, turbulent post-socialist transition, and challenges of globalization, the structure and functioning of economic, political, legal, and social institutions supporting a market economy has become a central topic for economists and policy-makers across the globe. What are appropriate market-oriented institutions and how can societies acquire them? Can good economic governance be engineered top down, through foreign aid? What institutional solutions ensure sound economic governance in a globally interdependent world? This course adopts an economic approach and embraces interdisciplinary analysis to provide an in-depth inquiry into fundamental issues of institutional design, and its impact on economic governance and behavior. Grajzl.