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PP5183 

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
   2016/2017, Semester 2
   Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (Lee Kuan Yew School Of Public Policy)
Modular Credits: 4
  Tags: --

Synopsis

Top(This section and the remainder of this IVLE module contain a snapshot of my teaching materials and lesson plan. The IVLE material here is extracted from my own notes on the course. That latter will always be the most current and will contain a superset of what appears here, so if at all possible, please refer there instead. Only later in the course, will we need IVLE, for more interactive usage in discussions and submissions.)

All emerging economies face common challenges: usually, inadequate resources; otherwise, waste and distortion; often, corruption and technological deficiency. Developed nations can demonstrate best practice. But they can also foist on developing countries restrictions on favored pathways to success: tight boundaries between state and market; unhelpful interpretations of political freedoms, intellectual property rights regimes, open capital markets; a constraining carbon-sensitive global environment — conditions that, while claimed universalist, did not operate when today's advanced economies started their climb to success. All these problems test Asia's emerging economies: this course develops economic and policy responses to help policymakers understand and deal with these challenges.

Learning Outcomes

TopThis course introduces students to the international political economy of development, with emphasis on understanding:
  1. different economic development strategies, taking into account specific circumstances for economies in Asia;
  2. the successes and failures in claims to universalism for values and approaches;
  3. the usefulness and limitations both of micro-strategies such as randomized controlled trials and program evaluations
  4. interplay of large macro forces in the Middle Income Trap, financial crises, the natural resource curse, and the Lewis Turning Point
  5. uncertainty surrounding the appropriate boundary between state and market.
Students will learn to engage in debate and to write policy briefs based on:
  1. understanding basic theories of economic growth;
  2. critical reading of the literature;
  3. appreciating the large macroeconomic forces that affect emerging economies;
  4. analysing the interface between public policy and markets in developing nations.

Prerequisites

TopThis course module is self-contained, but some prior knowledge in economics (formally acquired or otherwise) will be helpful.

The most useful background is wide reading of general economic problems—such as might be covered in the best international general-interest writings (in, e.g., the Economist, the FT, the Wall Street Journal)—and the wish to understand how those different positions need to be backed up by rigorous, empirically-falsifiable reasoning.

Some optional general background references include:

  • Banerjee Abhijit and Esther Duflo. 2011. Poor Economics. New York: Penguin.
  • Agenor, Pierre-Richard and Peter J. Montiel. 2015. Development Macroeconomics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • Easterly, William. 2001. The Elusive Quest for Growth. Cambridge: MIT Press.
  • Ray, Debraj. 1998. Development Economics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Nothing is compulsory; just look at those books periodically to see how our discussions in the course align with ideas there.

Schedule

TopThe syllabus further below contains information on the schedule.

Teaching Modes

Top
Each week's meeting begins with student presentations, 15 minutes each. These — as well as your midterm paper — will revolve around the question indicated for Weeks 06-07. Obviously, the “conventional, disciplinary” background referred to there is something that remains to be developed between now and then. However, independent of that material, based on only your current general understanding (and perhaps a little forward reading), your presentation should seek to provide insight on circumstances and history for an economy of your choice. (Think of this as a briefing for the CIA - they want to know what you consider the salient facts, history, risks, and prospective trajectories for country X, not so much an analytical, disciplinary framework for it.) Then as the course unfolds in the first six weeks and develops more analytical, disciplinary material, your midterm paper can build on your presentation by merging that presentation's substance with additional analytical content. This “circumstances and history” focus applies even for those making presentations after the mid-term paper: in the 15 minutes available for your presentation, you won't have time to bring in much more additional material. The penultimate course meeting will involve breakout groups, assigned to discuss an economic development challenge, with everyone returning to make group presentations on their solutions. No individual student presentations will be made that week. [Class presentation schedule.

Presenters are invited to submit, by 1700h three working days ahead of their session, some readings they reckon might be useful for what they will say. After the presentations we will have a 15-minute break—just enough to grab a cup of coffee or tea. Then the instructor lectures for the remaining time going over some other related background material, using that to bring out some of the points that the presenters have themselves made. The session then ends with general discussion on the questions arising from the readings, the presentations, and the lecture. I give here some suggestions for how individual presentations might usefully go.

Active participation in the discussions is an integral part of the learning experience in this course. Students will be assessed on both quantity and quality of their interventions; reading the materials beforehand is therefore important. The participation that attracts the highest marks will be one that critically reflects on the readings but then also engages with the thread of the discussion generally.

However abstract our discussions end up, still the end-result needs to be one that policy-makers and observers need to remember concretely and to take forwards in their work. Try to make our discussions thus. When discussing proposals and recommendations, be hard on ideas, not on people (least of all your fellow students!). Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and end up spending too much time on semantics, terminology, and abstract definitions. Try to get to something that works, and then improve from there as needed.

Syllabus

Top

Having a copy of the information in this section got too confusing as it was always slightly out of sync with my own notes on the course. That latter is always current, so please refer there instead.

Assessment

Top Both continuous engagement and persuasive writing count for the course grade:
  1. A 1000-word midterm paper/policy brief assessing the one of the key ideas appearing in Weeks 1-6, selected by the student — due at the end of Week 7 (1700h Friday 03 March 2017) (20%);
  2. Class participation (10%);
  3. Class presentation (20%);
  4. A 4,000-word final paper/background briefing, on one aspect of international economic development, selected in consultation with course instructor — due at the end of Week 14 (i.e., the week after the end of term, 1700h Friday 21 April 2017) (50%).

You're welcome to submit your papers in either PDF or some common editable format (e.g., Microsoft Word). If the format is something where I can't do a wordcount, however, please provide that count somewhere in the paper itself. The midterm and final papers should be submitted by IVLE / Files (Workbin) / Student Submissions. In this folder, only the submitting student and instructor will be able to see the contents of the submission.

Additionally, I have put down some suggestions for rules you might want to adapt in writing your papers.

Workload

Top1-2-0-0-7

Workload Components : A-B-C-D-E
A: no. of lecture hours per week
B: no. of tutorial hours per week
C: no. of lab hours per week
D: no. of hours for projects, assignments, fieldwork etc per week
E: no. of hours for preparatory work by a student per week

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