University of Alberta Department of Economics
Econ 414-B1
Economics of Developing Countries Winter 2018
Instructor: Pinar Mine Gunes
Time and Location: Tuesday & Thursday 9:30 AM - 10:50 AM, T 1 129
General Office Number: 780-492-6717 (only for messages), email: [email protected] Office Hours: Tuesdays 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM or by appointment, Tory 9-10
Overview and Objectives
The objective of this course is to give students an introduction to the analysis of economic de- velopment in low and middle income countries. Topics include poverty, health and nutrition, education and human capital, land and property rights, foreign aid, labor and migration, credit, and savings and insurance in the developing world. The course aims to understand the underlying factors and constraints influencing decision-making in developing countries.
Required Textbook
• Ray, Debraj,Development Economics, Princeton University Press, 1998
• A. Banerjee, R. Benabou, and D. Mookherjee,Understanding Poverty, Oxford Univer- sity Press, 2006: Internet Access is available through the University of Alberta Library Webpage
• Additional lists of journal articles will be distributed throughout the semester
Additional material, including sample exam questions and handouts, will be posted on the Moodle eClass site throughout the semester (https://eclass.srv.ualberta.ca/). Students are recommended to check the class web site once a week to ensure that you are aware of an- nouncements and supplementary material.
The textbook should be viewed as a complement to the lectures, not a substitute. You are responsible for the material covered both in the textbook and the in-class lectures.
Therefore, class attendance is indispensible for success in this course. If you have difficulty in understanding the material, please see me in my office hours or schedule an appointment through email.
Prerequisites
ECON 281. Students are expected to know basic calculus and be familiar with graphical analysis and basic statistical concepts.
Evaluation and Important Dates
• Students are expected to attend all classes and must complete the midterm and final exams. All students enrolled in the class are expected to take the exams on the scheduled dates.
• The class requires you to submit reading summaries, which are to be two pages double- spaced with 12 point font and 1-inch (2.54-cm) margins (word or pdf documents).
Grades will be based on the highest 5 paper submissions. LATE summaries will NOT be accepted for any reason. Each summary is due one week from the date it was assigned.
– Each summary should demonstrate that you have read and understood the paper, and should be carefully written. Grades will be assigned based on demonstrating knowledge of the paper and the quality of the summary. Around half of each summary (one-page) should summarize the authors’ main points, while the rest should be dedicated to an analysis of the paper as described below.
– Some questions you may want to consider in your analysis of the paper: Did you agree or disagree with the conclusions? Did you find any flaws in the authors reasoning? What was the most interesting part of the reading? Did the reading make you rethink your opinion on the issue? Are there other related issues or questions you would like to discuss in class? You do not have to answer all or any of these specific questions.
– You are not allowed to quote more than once.
• Groups of 2 students are expected to give a 20 minute (10 minutes for each student) presentation discussing an academic article in one of the broadly-defined topic areas below.
– The presentation should clearly describe the research question of the paper and the contribution in the context of the existing literature. Students are expected to demonstrate a thorough understanding of the theoretical and/or empirical results of the paper. Grades will be determined by both your demonstrated knowledge of the paper and the quality of the presentation.
– Depending on course enrollment, there will be approximately 15 presentation time slots, in the last 2 weeks of the term, covering the primary topic areas.
Students will choose their topics in the first class meeting, which will determine the corresponding presentation time slot. There will be one presentation for each topic.
• The weights assigned to each are given by the following (tentative schedule):
Exams, Presentations, etc. Share in Final Grade Due Dates
Paper Summaries 20% Throughout the Semester
Class Presentation 15% TBD
Midterm Exam 30% Tuesday, March 6 (In-Class)
Final Exam 35% Tuesday, April 24 9:00 AM
100%
The exams will be closely related to the material covered in class. The final exam will be cumulative, but more weight will be given to materials not covered in the midterm exam.
Calculation of Grade
Final grades will reflect both absolute and relative performance. I will use a combination of absolute measures and grade distribution to determine the final grade. I will inspect the final grade distribution for natural breaks between pools of students to ensure that “small”
differences in raw scores do not unduly influence final letter grades.
Policies
• Late Assignments and Missed Midterms: There will be no make-up midterm exam or extra credit essays. If you are not able to take your midterm exam because of a legitimate reason, the weight of the midterm exam will be transferred to the paper summaries, class presentation, and the final exam (25% paper summaries, 25%
class presentation, 50% final). If you miss the exam because of a medical reason, please submit the Medical Declaration Form to the Faculty. Late summaries will not be accepted for any reason. If you will miss the final exam, you may apply to your Faculty for a deferred exam. Note that a deferred final exam will not be approved if a student, excluding the final exam, has completed less than half of the assigned work (Calendar, 23.5.6(2)).
• Course Outline: Policy about course outlines can be found in the Evaluation Proce- dures and Grading System section of the University Calendar.
• Academic Accommodation: If you require academic accommodation due to a dis- ability, please see me at the beginning of the semester to discuss your needs. For more information, please check the web site at http://www.ssds.ualberta.ca.
• Learning Environment: The Faculty of Arts is committed to ensuring that all stu- dents, faculty and staff are able to work and study in an environment that is safe and free from discrimination and harassment. It does not tolerate behaviour that under-
being violated to (1) discuss the matter with the person whose behaviour is causing concern; or (2) if that discussion is unsatisfactory, or there is concern that direct dis- cussion is inappropriate or threatening, discuss it with the Chair of the Department.
For additional advice or assistance regarding this policy you may contact the student ombudservice: http://www.ombudservice.ualberta.ca/. Information about the Uni- versity of Alberta Discrimination and Harassment Policy and Procedures can be found in the GFC Policy Manual, section 44 available athttp://gfcpolicymanual.ualberta.ca/.
• Academic Integrity: The University of Alberta is committed to the highest stan- dards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provi- sions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at (http://www.governance.ualberta.ca/
CodesofConductandResidenceCommunityStandards/CodeofStudentBehaviour.aspx/) and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagia- rism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishon- esty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.
(GFC 29 SEP 2003). Policy about the course outlines can be found in 23.4(2) of the University Calendar. (GFC 29 SEP 2003).
• Recording of Lectures: Audio or video recording of lectures, labs, seminars or any other teaching environment by students is allowed only with the prior written consent of the instructor or as a part of an approved accommodation plan. Recorded material is to be used solely for personal study, and is not to be used or distributed for any other purpose without prior written consent from the instructor.
• Calculators: You may need a simple calculator for the exams. Programmable calcu- lators will not be allowed.
Course Outline
Topics and readings may be added or deleted as the term progresses. The order of the topics may also be changed. Readings with a (*) indicates that you need to prepare two-page summary for the article. Students are required to complete all readings prior to the class.
1 Introduction and Overview
1.1. What is poverty? How do we measure it?
• Ray Chapter 2. Economic Development: Overview
• Banerjee, A.V. and Duflo, E. (2007). The Economic Lives of the Poor. The Journal of Economic Perspectives. 21(1):141-167 (*)
• Deaton, A. (2004). Measuring Poverty. Princeton Research Program in Development Studies Working Paper (*)
• Human Development Report (2014). Technical Note 1, 1-10 1.2. Inequality
• Ray Chapter 6. Economic Inequality
• Haughton and Khander (2009). Measuring Inequality, Handbook on Poverty and Inequality, Chapter 6, The World Bank Institute
2 Growth Models 2.1. Growth models
• Ray Chapters 3 & 4. Economic Growth & The New Growth Theories 3 Health and Nutrition
3.1. Health and nutrition: Poverty traps
• Ray Chapter 8. Poverty and Undernutrition
• Ray Chapter 13.4. Poverty, Nutrition, and Labor Markets
• Thomas, D. and Frankenberg, E. (2002). Health, Nutrition, and Prosperity: A Mi- croeconomic Perspective, Bulletin of the World Health Organization (*)
3.2. Providing health services and medicines in developing countries
• Kremer, Michael (2002). Pharmaceuticals and the Developing World. Journal of Economic Perspectives. 16(4) (*)
• Banerjee, Benabou, and Mookherjee Chapter 17. Michael Kremer. Public Policies to Stimulate Development of Vaccines for Neglected Diseases
• Canning, David (2006). The Economics of HIV/AIDS in Low-Income Countries: the
4 Education and Human Capital 4.1. Education
• Glewwe and Kremer (2006). Schools, Teachers, and Education Outcomes in Devel- oping Countries, in Handbook on the Economics of Education, Elsevier (*) 4.2. Conditional Cash Transfer Programs
• Rawlings and Rubio (2005). Evaluating the Impact of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs. World Bank Research Observer (*)
• de Janvry and Sadoulet (2004). Conditional Cash Transfer Programs: Are they really magic bullets? ARE Update, Vol. 7, No. 6
4.3. Fertility
• Ray Chapter 9. Population Growth and Economic Development
• Banerjee, Benabou, and Mookherjee Chapter 10. Mukesh Eswaran. Fertility in Developing Countries (*)
4.4. Child labor
• Banerjee, Benabou, and Mookherjee Chapter 17. Kaushik Basu. Policy Dilemmas for Controlling Child Labor
• Edmonds, Eric and Nina Pavcnik (2005). Child Labor in the Global Economy. Jour- nal of Economic Perspectives (*)
5 Land and property rights 5.1. Land
• Ray Ch 11. Markets in Agriculture and Ch 12. Land
• Banerjee, Benabou, and Mookherjee Chapter 8. Mukesh Eswaran and Ashok Katwal.
The Role of Agriculture in Development (*)
• Feeding the Hungry. The Economist, 2004 6 Foreign Aid
6.1. Aid
• William and Pfutze (2008). Where does the Money Go? Best and Worst Practices in Foreign Aid. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22(2) (*)
• Easterly, William. Why Does Not Aid Work? Cato Unbound, April, 2006
• Banerjee, Abhijit. Making Aid Work, Boston Review, July, 2006
• Easterly, William. Stop Sending Aid to Dictators, Time, March 2013
7 Labor and migration 7.1. Labor markets
• Ray Chapter 13. Labor 7.2. Migration
• Ray Chapter 10. Rural and Urban
• Migration and Development. The Economist, 2004 8 Credit
8.1. Credit and investment
• Ray Chapter 14. Credit
• Banerjee, Benabou, and Mookherjee Chapter 23. Robert M. Townsend. Credit, Intermediation, and Poverty Reduction
9 Savings and Insurance 9.1. Savings and insurance
• Ray Chapter 15. Insurance
• Banerjee, Benabou, and Mookherjee Chapter 14. Martin Ravallion. Transfers and Safety Nets in Poor Countries: Revisiting the Trade-Offs and Policy Options
