Two out of five people worldwide lack access to a toilet. One out of six does not have access to safe drinking water. Inadequate access to water and sanitation contributes to two million child deaths a year.
Welcome to
ECONOMICS 280: Development Economics
Fall 2009: TTh 8:30-10:00 and 10:10-11:40
Instructor: Jim Casey
Contact Info:
Holekamp 214, Ext. 8102, Email: Caseyj
Office Hours:
:
W 10-12
Prerequisite: Economics 101
General Development Initiative
Course Overview:
Economic Development has been defined by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen as "the process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy" (see Development as Freedom, p. 3). Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq has written that "the objective of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives" (see Human Development Reports). Development Economics is the branch of economics that studies developing countries. While there is no generally accepted definition of "developing countries," the expression refers to relatively poor countries-or countries where standards of living are relatively low on average. This class serves as an introduction to the field of Development Economics. Development Economics is a very broad field, covering everything from Agriculture to Trade with poverty, inequality, gender, finance, environment, labor, education, health, and nutrition in between. Knowledge of Principles of Microeconomics (ECON 101) is required. Knowledge of basic regression analysis will be helpful.
The structure for this class will remain the same as the topics change. A typical week will involve reading 1 or 2 chapters from the text in preparation for Tuesday’s class. Class time on Tuesday will be reserved for answering any questions you may have pertaining to the day’s assigned reading. If there are no questions, then I will assume you understand everything from the chapter and I will move on with a lecture of my choosing. We will start Thursday's class with a short quiz. The quiz will cover material from Tuesday’s assigned reading(s). We will finish each Thursday with a discussion of the assigned reading for that day, which will usually be an article related to the chapter material. In order to prepare for Thursday's discussion you will need to comment on the class blog before class. I will post an article related to the assigned reading and you will be expected to read this short article and comment on its relationship to the assigned reading.
The Class Blog - http://generaldevelopment.blogspot.com/
In addition to learning in this class, we will also be doing. Our collective objective will be to start our own development initiative – appropriately named - General Development Initiative. We will learn about microfinance and we will do microfinance. You will have the opportunity to partake in one of the following three activities - (1) Develop a proposal for a funding agency, (2) raise capital for the fund, or (3) develop a client list with justification based on appropriate theories of development.
A General doing Microfinance - http://www.1000hillsandariver.com/
http://www.mcenterprises.org/studycenter/microfinance/
(1) Todaro and Smith (T&S) Economic Development. 9th ed. http://www.aw-bc.com/todaro/
(2) Sen, Amartya. 1999. Development as Freedom. Random House.
(3) Selected Online Reading Assignments
Requirements
| 20% of your grade will be based on the microfinance project |
| 50% of your grade will be based on two exams. |
| 10% on blogging |
| 20% of your grade will be based on weekly quizzes. |
Course Schedule:
|
Date |
Format |
Theme |
Assignment for the day |
Due |
|
Thursday 9/10 |
Introduction, course overview |
Poverty |
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/08/20/magazine/kristof-audioss/index.html |
|
|
|
|
|
http://www.mcenterprises.org/studycenter/microfinance/
|
|
|
Tuesday 9/15 |
Answer Questions/Lecture |
Poverty |
T&S 1 and 2 |
|
|
Thursday 9/17 |
Quiz, Discussion |
Poverty |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday 9/22 |
Answer Questions/Lecture |
Women |
T&S 5 |
|
|
Thursday 9/24 |
Discussion |
Women |
http://ezproxy.wlu.edu:2185/cgi/reprint/22/2/271
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday 9/29 |
Answer Questions/Lecture |
Theory |
T&S 3 and 3.1 |
|
|
Thursday 10/01 |
NO CLASS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday 10/6 |
Answer Questions/Lecture |
Theory |
T&S 4 |
|
|
Thursday 10/8 |
Quiz, Discussion |
Theory |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday 10/13 |
Answer Questions/Lecture |
Finance |
Interest Rates in the North and Capital Flows to the South: Is There a Missing Link? |
|
|
Thursday 10/15 |
READING DAY |
Finance |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday 10/20 |
Lecture/Discussion |
|
T&S 16 , Sen 1 and 2, exam review |
|
|
Thursday 10/22 |
EXAM |
|
EXAM |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday 10/27 |
Answer Questions/Lecture |
Employment Migration |
T&S 7
|
|
|
Thursday 10/29 |
Quiz, Discussion |
Employment Migration |
|
|
|
--------- |
---------- |
------------ |
------------------------------------------------------------
|
---------- |
|
Tuesday 11/3 |
Answer Questions/Lecture |
Human Capital |
T&S 6 and 8 T&S 7 |
meet for the full two hours |
|
Thursday 11/5 |
Quiz, Discussion |
Human Capital |
meet for the full two hours |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday 11/10 |
Answer Questions/Lecture and DIscussion |
|
Chapter 8 and |
You may ask questions about ch.8 then I will move on to the papers |
|
Thursday 11/12 |
QUiz on ch.8, Discussion |
Agriculture |
T&S 9 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday 11/17 |
Answer Questions/Lecture |
Sustainability |
T&S 10 and T&S 9 |
|
|
Thursday 11/19 |
Quiz on ch. 10, Discussion |
Sustainability |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday 11/24 |
GOBBLE |
|
Happy Thanksgiving |
|
|
Thursday 11/26 |
GOBBLE |
|
Happy Thanksgiving |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday 12/1 |
Answer Questions/Lecture |
TBA |
|
|
|
Thursday 12/3 |
Answer Questions/Lecture |
TBA |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tuesday 12/8 |
Presentations |
|
Groups 1 and 3 |
|
|
Thursday 12/10 |
Presentations |
|
Group 2 and review for the final exam |
|
|
|
|
|
Take Home Exam. |
|
This is directly from the course catalogue
GRADES
C +, C, C- Fair