This class serves as an introduction to the study of Development Economics. The course will be divided into four sections. The first section provides an overview of Development Economics. What is development economics? What is the difference between "growth" and "development"? What is the current state of affairs in the world of development? What does it mean to be poor?
The second part introduces specific theories of growth and development. This is the "history of thought" section and leads to current ideas related to “endogenous growth,” "unfreedom" and “ecological economics.”
The third part of the course deals primarily with the factors of production: physical, human and natural capital. We will spend a significant amount of time discussing the role of human capital and how it is inseparable from discussions of physical and natural capital.
The last part of the course is reserved for
“global issues.” What is the role of the IMF and World Bank? How
does "free-trade" affect development? Why are there protests in Seattle,
Genoa, and Washington D.C.?
(1) (H&R) Hess, Peter and Clark Ross. 1997. Economic Development: Theories, Evidence, and Policies. The Dryden Press.
(2) Sen, Amartya. 1999. Development as Freedom. Random House.
(3) (HDR) Human Development Report http://www.undp.org/annualreports
(4) (R) Reserve Readings (Located outside my office. May be borrowed for 2 hours - to read or make copies)
(5) Additional Reading Resources
Earth Summit 2002
http://www.csmonitor.com/
http://www.stanford.edu/~promer/nontech.htm
http://www.stern.nyu.edu/globalmacro/
http://www.oxy.edu/~gsecondi/dev.html
http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae/
http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/library/index.htm
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/EDCC/home.html
http://ideas.uqam.ca/ideas/data/JEL/O41.html
http://www.econ.nyu.edu/user/debraj/
http://pieria.acs.southwestern.edu/econ/growth/sld001.htm
http://www.elsevier.nl/homepage/sae/econbase/devec/menu.sht
http://www.worldbank.org/research/growth/pdfiles/1807.pdf
http://www.fgn.unisg.ch/eumacro/IntrTutor/SGE04.html
The first thing you will need to do is pick a developing country of your choice. You may have a specific region of interest or some place you have visited and this may lead you to choose your country. By the end of the semester you will become a "development expert" in reference to your country.
30% of your grade will be based on a midterm
exam.
30% of your grade will be based on a final
exam.
15% of your grade will be based on 3 writing
assignments.
15% of your grade will be class participation. Notice this does not say class attendance. You will be required to engage actively in the discussions in this class. Do NOT assume that everyone gets an A for class participation or that class participation can “only improve your grade” for it will be possible to receive an F in class participation.
10% of your grade will be the cumulative result of four problem sets.
Hold on, we're not quite finished yet.
The last component of this course is a Service learning component.
Each student will be required to volunteer
10 hours of service and keep a journal of this experience. You should
write in your journal after each volunteer experience. Please
note the date and the amount of time you volunteered. Your entry
should reflect on your experience. How did it feel? What did
you think about? How does this experience influence how you think
about underdevelopment and poverty?
This assignment is important, because the
only way to truly understand poverty or underdevelopment is to be poor.
I do not expect anyone to take an oath of poverty to complete this course.
However,
I do believe there is something to be learned from working with poor people.
This service learning experience is aimed at enriching your understanding
of underdevelopment and hopefully to attain a higher level of compassion
when thinking about economic policy and poverty. To begin this
part of the course each student must meet with Eric Owsley (Coordinator
of Volunteer Work for the Shepard Poverty Program) during the first week
of the term. Eric is open to being contacted by phone email or just
stop by Parmly 218 when you have a chance. This experience will
not be graded. However, failure to complete this component of the
course will result in automatic failure.
| PAPERS
Due Date
(1) Background* Sept. 25 (2) Theoretical model* Oct. 23 (3) Policy* Nov. 20 *must use 12 pt. Ariel font, double spaced, and 4 page limit |
homework
Due Date
Chs. 1 (2,3), 3 (1,3) Sept. 30 Handout Oct. 14 Chs. 7 (1ac), 9 (1abc) Nov. 4 Chs. 10 (1ab,4ab), 13 (5,8) Dec. 2 |
| Your journal is due December 4, no exceptions. | Midterm October 9, Final exam week |
Week Topics & Required Reading
1
What is Development Economics?; H&R 1, 2, "The Fall and Rise
of Development Economics" - Krugman (R)
"Markets, Market Failures and Development" - Stiglitz (R).
2 Theories of Development: Harrod-Domar, Solow, Rostow, & Lewis; H&R 3, 4,
5 myths of 3rd world development
3 Endogenous Growth; Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1994 (R),
http://www.worldbank.org/research/growth/
4 Ecological Economics; H&R 5, 6, "What Natural Capital is and does" - Prugh (R), "Introduction to Ecological Economics" - Costanza et al. (R)
5 Unfreedom; Sen, Amartya. 1999. Development as Freedom. Random House.,
6 Population, Human Capital; H&R 7, 8, "Investing in People" - Schultz (R)
7 Human Capital
(con’t), Labor Markets; H&R 9, "Are Educated Workers Really
More
Productive?" - Jones (R),
Education in Mexico
8 Physical Capital; H&R 10,13 MicroCredit
9 Agriculture;
H&R 11, "Models of Agricultural Development" - Ruttan (R), "Agricultural
Development:
Transforming Human Capital, Technology, and Institutions" - Bonnen (R)
10 The Environment; H&R 12, "People and Ecosystems: The Fraying Web of Life" (R)
11 Trade; H&R 14, "The
effects of openness trade orientation, and human capital on total
factor productivity" - Miller et al. (R)
12 International Finance; H&R 15, 16,19
essay contest
UN Data
More Poverty links
Nobel
Prize Recipient
EXAMPLE of a THEORY PAPER