Economic Development SS-238

As recently as 250 years ago the world had a roughly equal level of development. Today, the richest country in the world has an average income level around 400 times that of the poorest. What are the reasons behind this divergence? How have the ‘poor’ countries attempted to reverse the gap and how have these attempts transformed societies within those countries? The course examines these general themes and consists of two components: First, we will survey contemporary debates in development economics, including such topics as development ethics (e.g. what is development? development by whom and for what?), development theory and models (e.g. import substitution, micro enterprises, export orientation), and development critiques (e.g. the impact of the ‘green’ revolution on the rural poor). Second, student research teams will choose a developing country at the beginning of the course to study in depth, applying the ideas discussed in class. The groups will periodically present their research to the class to help us achieve a larger sense of the challenges faced in seeking effective, equitable development.

Course Goals

 * Learn the main theories and debates within Development Economics
 * Develop analytical, quantitative, and writing as well as research skills through problem sets, response papers and other assignments.
 * Gain an understanding of different regional experiences with development as well as more in-depth knowledge of your own research country.

Course Requirements and Structure
You are expected to attend class regularly and have all the readings done before coming to class. There are three main requirements for the course. Receiving an evaluation is contingent on successful completion of all three as well as regular class attendance and participation. Your evaluation will focus on attendance and participation, overall quality of work, involvement with team research, as well as progress in writing and quantitative skills.

A. Country Research
After formation of the teams (3 or 4 students per team), each team must decide on a country. For the remainder of the semester, each team will be conducting research on their country’s experience with economic development. Each team will make two 25 minute presentations. As the semester progresses I will provide guidelines and questions for each presentation that you can follow if you are having trouble deciding on how to approach the topic or what issues to investigate. You are required to attend the presentations of the other teams, pay attention, and provide feedback. Some of the response papers will be based on the group presentations.

B. Research Paper
Due at the last day of class, this paper should be a synthesis of the knowledge gained from the research, readings, and class discussions. The overarching goal is to use your country (and additional) research to address a specific question/topic (e.g. agricultural development; urban migration; gender issues). The one major requirement, which I will discuss in more detail as the semester progresses, is that the paper must contain a quantitative component. The paper is due Wednesday December 10, 2008.

C.Response Papers/ Problem Sets
Over the course of the semester I will ask you to write a brief response paper to comment on a particular reading(s) or question or to complete a problem set. These assignments are designed to encourage synthesis of and reflection on the material as well as gaining skills that will help you conduct research. They will usually be assigned on Mondays or Wednesday and will be due the following Monday (if there is no class meeting on that Monday, they’ll be due the first scheduled class meeting).

Attendance Policy
Your attendance and participation is essential for making this class a success; in other words, the course cannot continue as normal without your commitment. Therefore, if you have more than 2 unexcused absences (and more than 4 total absences), you will not receive an evaluation for the course. An excused absence means illness or other emergency (that we will evaluate on a case by case basis). Your attendance will be documented by your daily completion of a comment/question on the readings. In other words, if you don't comment on the reading, you will be marked absent for that day.

Assignments/Late Work
All assignments are due in print, in class, on the specified date. You must hand in all your work directly to me. I will not accept late papers unless you have contacted me ahead of time, with a legitimate excuse, and we have agreed on an alternate due date. Please do not email me your assignment and make sure you are able to print out your work before hand.

Portfolio
At the end of the semester you will submit a folder containing all the work you submitted for the class. Along with your class participation, the portfolio will be the basis of your evaluation. Please keep the work that is returned to you with the original comments.

Teaching Assistants
The teaching assistants for this course will be Kanya Lianne D’Almeida (kld06@hampshire.edu) and Noam Bahat (nb06@hampshire.edu). They will be available to help you with the course material.

Course Website
The course website https://athena.hampshire.edu/S296193/index contains a detailed description of assignments and essays by date as well as pdf files of all readings.

Ethics of Scholarship
All students are expected to abide by the College’s “Ethics of Scholarship” guidelines available at: https://intranet.hampshire.edu/cms/index.php?id=7355. Plagiarism is a serious offense and includes false citation, false data, intentional poor documentation, papers written by others, unacknowledged multiple authors or collaboration, and unacknowledged multiple submission. Follow the link above to learn the definition of each of these components.

Special Needs
If you believe that you may have a learning disability or require special accommodation, please contact Joel Dansky (Disability Services Coordinator jdAC@hampshire.edu ) as soon as possible.

Daily Schedule Tentative Schedule
This schedule is subject to change, please check the course website for the latest readings.


 * Week 1 9/3: Introduction and Overview of the Course


 * Week 2 9/8: Development Economics: Origins, Trajectory, and Dominant Themes
 * Cypher, J. M. and J. L. Dietz. 2005. The Process of Economic Development. Routledge: New York. Chapter 1: The development imperative


 * 9/10: Development Economics
 * Ferguson, J. 2006. “Global Shadows: Africa in the Neo-Liberal World Order” Duke University Press: Durham. Chapter 2 “Paradoxes of Sovereignty and Independence: ‘Real’ and ‘Pseudo-‘ Nation States and the Depoliticization of Poverty” • Hayek. F. 1978. The Constitution of Liberty, University of Chicago Press: Chicago. Chapter 3 “The Common Sense of Progress” • Overview of data mining and Microsoft Excel. Bring laptop to class.


 * Week 3 9/15: Alternative Measures of development /Development Ethics
 * Cypher, J. M. and J. L. Dietz. 2005. The Process of Economic Development. Routledge: New York. Chapter 2: Measuring Economic growth and development • United Nations Development Programme. 1990. Human Development Report, Chapter 1: “Defining and Measuring Human Development.”


 * 9/17: Development Ethics
 * Sen, A. 1998. “The Living Standard,” in Ethics of Consumption: The Good Life, Justice, and Global Stewardship, Crocker, D.A., and T. Linden, eds. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.: New York, pp. 287-311 • Nussbaum, Martha. 1998. “The Good as Discipline, The Good as Freedom,” in Ethics of Consumption: The Good Life, Justice, and Global Stewardship, Crocker, D.A., and T. Linden, eds. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.: New York, pp. 312-341


 * Problem Set 1 Due: Bring your data to class so we can discuss them.


 * Week 4 9/22: Poverty and Inequality, the Kuznets Curve
 * Kuznets. S. 1955. “Economic Growth and Income Inequality,” American Economic Review, (45)1: 1-28
 * Millenium Development Goals, available at http://www.undp.org/mdg Take a look at the 8 goals


 * 9/24: Gender and Development
 * Meier, G.M. and J.E. Rauch, 2005. Leading Issues in Economic Development, Oxford University Press: New York. Selection IV.D.1. “Gender Inequality at the Start of the 21st Century” • Sender J. 2003. “Rural Poverty and Gender: Analytical Frameworks and Policy Proposals,” in Rethinking Development Economics, H.J. Chang (ed.), Anthem Press: London, pp. 407-423.


 * Response Paper 1 Due: Development Ethics


 * Week 5 9/29: Origins of Underdevelopment
 * Rostow, W.W. 1959. “The Stages of Economic Growth,” The Economic History Review, 12(1): 1-16. • Frank, A.G. 1966. “The Development of Underdevelopment,” Monthly Review, Volume 18, Reprint. • Inikori, J. E. 1992. “Slavery and Trans-Atlantic Commerce,” The American Economic Review, 82(2): 151-157. • Dutt, A. K. 1992. “The Origins of Uneven Development, the Indian Subcontinent,” The American Economic Review, 82(2): 146-150.


 * 10/1: Group Presentation 1
 * Topics: Country Choice, Colonial Legacy, Overview of development strategies and results


 * Week 6 10/6: Group Presentation 1 (cont’d)


 * 10/8: Group Presentation 1 (cont’d)
 * (Time Permitting) Comparative Advantage
 * Handout on Comparative Advantage


 * Week 7 10/13: OCTOBER BREAK; NO CLASSES
 * 10/15: Capital accumulation, industrialization and trade regimes
 * Rosenstein-Rodan, P. N. 1943. “Problems of Industrialization of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe,” The Economic Journal, 53, 202-211
 * Chang, H.J. 2003. “Kicking Away the Ladder, the Real History of Free Trade,” Foreign Policy in Focus.


 * Problem Set; Response Paper 2 Due


 * Week 8 10/20: Capital Accumulation Cont’d/ Structuralist and Dependency critiques
 * Dos Santos, T. 1970. “The Structure of Dependence,” The American Economic Review, 60(2): 231-236 • Lal, D. 1995. “The Misconceptions of ‘Development Economics’”, in The Political Economy of Development and Underdevelopment, K. Jameson and C. Wilber, eds., McGraw Hill: New York, pp. 28-36.


 * 10/22: Neo-classical resurgence and Openness &amp; Growth Debates
 * Krugman, P. 1983. “New Theories of Trade Among Developing Countries,” The American Economic Review, 73(2): 343-347 o Dollar, D. and A. Kraay. 2004. “Trade, Growth, and Poverty,” The Economic Journal, 114:F22-F49 o Easterlin, R. 2000. “The Globalization of Human Development,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 570: 32-48.


 * Week 9 10/27: Agricultural Development and Land Reform
 * Meier, G.M. and J.E. Rauch, 2005. Leading Issues in Economic Development, Oxford University Press: New York. Selection VII.A.5. Prospects and Strategies for Land Reform • Meier, G.M. and J.E. Rauch, 2005. Leading Issues in Economic Development, Oxford University Press: New York. Selection VII.A.2.Agricultural Development Strategies • Meier, G.M. and J.E. Rauch, 2005. Leading Issues in Economic Development, Oxford University Press: New York. Selection VII.A.3.Some Theoretical Aspects of Agricultural Policies • Meier, G.M. and J.E. Rauch, 2005. Leading Issues in Economic Development, Oxford University Press: New York. Note.VII.A.2. Induced Technical Change


 * 10/29: Green Revolution; Environmental Sustainability
 * United Nations. 1987. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Points 1 through 46.
 * Boyce, J. 2004. “Green and Brown? Globalization and the Environment” Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 20(1): 105-128


 * Problem Set &amp; Response Paper 3 Due Week 10 11/3: Rural-Urban Migration
 * Todaro and Smith “Urbanization and Rural-Urban Migration: Theory and Policy


 * 11/5: ADVISING DAY NO CLASSES


 * Week 11 11/10: Macroeconomic equilibrium: Exchange rates and the BoP
 * Cypher, J. M. and J. L. Dietz. 2005. The Process of Economic Development. Routledge: New York. Chapter 15: “Macroeconomic Equilibrium: the external balance.”


 * 11/12: Macro-economic instability: The debt crises of the 1980s
 * Cypher, J. M. and J. L. Dietz. 2005. The Process of Economic Development. Routledge: New York. Chapter 16: “The debt problem and development.”


 * Problem Set and Response Paper 4 Due Week 12 11/17: Multinational Institutions


 * Cypher, J. M. and J. L. Dietz. 2005. The Process of Economic Development. Routledge: New York. Chapter 17: “International institutional linkages: the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and foreign aid”


 * 11/19: Focus on the WTO o Dutt, A. K. 2006. “The World Trade Organization” University of Notre Dame, Department of Economics and Policy Studies, Unpublished Manuscript.


 * Week 13 11/24: Micro-Credit and Grameen Bank
 * Check out : http://www.grameen-info.org/ o Fernando, J. 1997. “Nongovernmental Organizations, Micro-credit, and Empowerment of Women, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 554: 150-177.


 * 11/26: THANKSGIVING BREAK NO CLASS


 * Week 14 12/1: Group Presentation 2
 * Topic: Structural adjustment, reform, current debates/ development strategies (e.g. micro financing; urban development; recovered factories; etc.)


 * 12/3: Group Presentation 2 (cont’d)


 * Week 15 12/8: Group Presentation 2 (cont’d)


 * 12/10: Whither Development?
 * Ferguson, J. 2006. “Global Shadows: Africa in the Neo-Liberal World Order” Duke University Press: Durham. Chapter 7 “Decomposing Modernity: History and Hierarchy After Development” o WRAPUP AND LOOKING FORWARD Research Paper Due

Links (serious and less-serious)

 * World Bank’s World Development Indicators (WDI) This is a massive annual database of statistical indicators available through the Library website under “Research Databases”


 * UNDP Human Development Reports http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports : These annual reports are an excellent resource and starting point for research. Each year’s reports focuses on a particular theme, but there are various human development indicators are calculated every year.


 * GapMinder www.gapminder.org : A powerful graphical tool that allows you to compare countries using various statistical indicators.


 * International Development Economists Association (IDEAs): http://www.networkideas.org A network, based in the South, to share the work of development economists. Includes, articles, country briefs, documents and statistics, and more.


 * The Story of Stuff http://www.storyofstuff.com : Interesting twenty minute video about production, distribution, and consumption.


 * Sweatshop game http://www.simsweatshop.com/game : Some student a while back sent me this. Simulation/education about sweatshops.