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In developing countries, informal firms account for up to half of economic activity. They provide livelihood for billions of people. Yet their role in economic development remains controversial. The objective of the course is to examine whether informal firms ought to be viewed as an untapped reservoir of entrepreneurial energy and therefore an important engine for economic development, or rather as an impediment to development because their small scale makes them unproductive and because they take away market share from bigger, more productive formal competitors. By approaching the topic from an empirical perspective, the course aims at giving participants an overview of the most important methods that are used in the field of development economics. Applying these methods to different dimensions of the role of the unofficial economy in economic development, participants will carry out empirical work independently. Research questions are worked out by the participants themselves and may fall into topics such as: Does it pay firms to register for taxes? What can governments do to formalize firms? What happens to the size of the unofficial economy as countries develop? How are working conditions in the unofficial economy? What is the relationship between poverty and informality?
Participants are free to pursue their own ideas, and to come up with new ways in addressing existing questions. They will use data on individuals, households, firms, or countries to pursue their research questions and may work collaboratively with other participants. In the final sessions, participants will present their findings and, more importantly, how they generated them through the research process.
As the application of quantitative methods is at the core of this course, participants should have attended courses in microeconomics, statistics and math at least on an intermediate level, and an introductory course in econometrics. Moreover, at least basic knowledge of a statistical software, preferably STATA, is necessary. To not exclude foreign students, English is used as the working language. If it turns out, however, that only Germans participate, a change to German is conceivable. If you are interested in participating or have any further questions, feel free to contact me via tevin.tafese@giga-hamburg.de
Seminarzeit: Between 06.06.2019 and 28.06.2019 weekly on Thursdays and Fridays from 16:00 bis 20:00 o’clock.
Raum: Spandauer Straße 1, Room 21 A
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