Module Overview

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.