The goal of this course is for the students to understand the role of the institutional and political environment in shaping business and economics in emerging economies. The students will learn to work with measurements of entrepreneurship and business environments, to use game theory to analyse the incentives and strategic interactions among entrepreneurial individuals, to understand the importance of interactions between different types of institutions (e.g. formal and informal), to recognize that entrepreneurship can be both productive and destructive, and to think about new and creative forms of entrepreneurship to deal with problems in business and economics.

This course provides an introduction to the institutional environment shaping the economics of business and entrepreneurship in emerging economies. The role of the state and formal political institutions, as well as civil society and informal institutions, are analysed. Particular emphasis is placed on the allocation of entrepreneurial talent and its impact on business and economic development. The institutional framework (‘rules of the game’ or ‘reward structure of society’) is taken as a point of departure to explain how the allocation of entrepreneurial talent can give rise to either productive or non-productive forms of entrepreneurship, the latter including topics such as bureaucratic corruption and regulatory capture by interest groups. The course will also cover destructive forms of entrepreneurship, including violent conflicts and human rights abuses by corporations in emerging economies.

The literature for this course consists of a collection of academic articles, policy papers and newspaper articles, alongside other materials such as podcasts and recorded lectures.

Completed all first year courses in either the International Business bachelor or in the Economics and Business Economics bachelor.