Postgraduate Course: Development and Economics (PGSP11345)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Postgrad (School of Social and Political Studies) |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This optional course introduces students to macro and microeconomic theories and debates in development. The course is aimed at students with little previous exposure to or background in economics and sets out to offer a critical understanding of principals in neo-classical economics as they have been applied to the project of development in the Global South. The course will review key elements of economic theory, in relation to globalisation, poverty, microfinance and social enterprise. Through case studies of specific policies and programmes students will be introduced to debates about economic models and paradigms, including their claims to truth, their ideological underpinnings, and their role in reproducing inequality and injustice. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | No |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2013/14 Semester 2, Available to all students (SV1)
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Learn enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
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Web Timetable |
Web Timetable |
| Course Start Date |
13/01/2014 |
| Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Please contact the School directly for a breakdown of Learning and Teaching Activities |
| Additional Notes |
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| Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) |
Please contact the School directly for a breakdown of Assessment Methods
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| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course students will have an advanced knowledge and understanding of key concepts in development economics and the tools to think critically about them. In particular, they will:
- Have an understanding of key ideas in neo-classical economics and how the history of their application in development policy and programme.
- Have an understanding of the history and debates surrounding these ideas and those of influential critics.
- Understand the role of macro and micro economic theory in development and practice.
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Assessment Information
One x 3,000 word essay.
One x 1,000 word briefing paper half way through the semester
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Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Students are expected to attend one lecture and one tutorial each week. Each lecture will last one hour and will be followed by a one seminar for structured discussion and debate, to explore key issues and draws on that week's readings issues. The lectures will be delivered by the course convenor, and may include guest talks from in-house and visiting experts, with the convenor attending each week and responsible for overall course coherence.
Week One: Orthodox and Hetrodox Economics
From political economy to economics
History of development economics
From Washington Consensus to Post Washington Consensus
Week Two: The Growth Fetish
Economic Theory 1: Macroeconomics
Fiscal policy, management of public finances, health, education, public utilities
Neoliberal economics / structural adjustment policies
Week Three: Freedom
Openness to trade
Competition in the global economy
Regulation and the state
Week Four: Industrialisation
Industrialisation and the race to the bottom
Economic zones as engines of social and economic development
Week Five: Households and Livelihoods
Economic Theory 2: Microeconomics
Measuring risk, poverty and vulnerability
Week Six: Reading week
Deadline for Submission of 1000 word, mid semester paper
Week Seven: The Economic Lives of the Poor
Behavioural Economics
Rationality, Calculation
Field Laboratories and the Randomised Controlled Trial
Incentives and conditional cash transfers
Week Eight: The Informal Economy
The origins of the informal economy
Informality, insecurity and precariousness
The informal economy and social regulation
Week Nine: Banking with the Poor
Micro-finance
Micro-insurance
Micro-credit
Credit markets and poverty traps
Week Ten: Poverty Means Business
Enterprise and social entrepreneurship
Business, Development and the double bottom line
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| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Week One: Orthodox and Hetrodox Economics
Fine, B. Lapavitsas, Pincus, J. 2001. Development Policy in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond the Post-Washington Consensus. London: Routledge
Gore, C. 2000. The rise and fall of the Washington Consensus as a paradigm for developing countries. World Development.
Onis, Z., Senses, F. 2005. Rethinking the Emerging Post-Washington Consensus. Development and Change. 36:2, 263-290
Week Two: The Growth Fetish
Bello, Walden. 2004. Deglobalization: Ideas for a New World Economy.
Chang, Ha-Joon. 2002. Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective. London: Anthem
Freidman, Thomas. 2007. The World is Flat: The Globalised World in the Twenty First Century. London: Penguin
Stiglitz, Joseph E. 2002. Globalization and its Discontents. New York: WW Norton & Company.
Week Three: Freedom
Bello, Walden. 2004. Deglobalization: Ideas for a New World Economy.
Chang, Ha-Joon. 2002. Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective. London: Anthem
Freidman, Thomas. 2007. The World is Flat: The Globalised World in the Twenty First Century. London: Penguin
Stiglitz, Joseph E. 2002. Globalization and its Discontents. New York: WW Norton & Company.
Week Four: Industrialisation
Aradhna Aggarwal. 2012 The Social and Economic Impact of Special Economic Zones in India. London: Oxford
Gardener, Katy 2012. Discordant Development: Global Capitalism and the Struggle for Connection in Bangladesh. London: Pluto Press
Kaplinksy, R. 2005. Globalisation, Poverty and Inequality. London: Polity Press
Wolf, Diane. 1992. Factory Daughters: Gender, Household Dynamics and Rural Industrialisation in Java. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Week Five: Households and Livelihoods
Kabeer, N. (1994), Beyond the Poverty Line: Measuring Poverty and Impoverishing Measures, in N Kabeer, Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought, pp136-162, London & New York, Verso, Chapter 6.
Heitzman, K., S. Canagarajah, et al. (2002). Guidelines for assessing the sources of risk and vulnerability. Washington DC, The World Bank.
Hoddinott, J. and A. Quisumbing (2003). Methods for Microeconometric Risk and Vulnerability Assessments. Washington DC, The World Bank.
Whitehead, A. and Lockwood, M. (1999), Gendering Poverty: A Review of Six World Bank African Poverty Assessments. Development and Change, 30: 525-555. doi: 10.1111/1467-7660.00128
Whitehead, A. 2006 Persistant Poverty in Northern Ghana: Journal of Development Studies 2:6: p278-300
Week Six: Reading week
Week Seven: The Economic Lives of the Poor
Banerjee, Abhijit V, and Esther Duflo. 2007. The Economic Lives of the Poor. Journal of Economic Perspectives 21 (1): 141-167.
Banerjee, Abhijit V, and Esther Duflo. Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. New York: Public Affairs
Cardenas, Juan Camilo, and Jeffrey Carpenter. 2008. Behavioural Development Economics: Lessons from Field Labs in the Developing World. Journal of Development Studies 44 (3) (March): 311-338.
Week Eight: The Informal Economy
Breman, Jan. 2003. The Labouring Poor in India: Patterns of Exploitation, Subordination and Exclusion. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
De Soto, Hernando. The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else. Basic Books, 2000
Harriss-White, Barbara. 2003. India working: Essays on society and economy. Cambridge Univ Press.
Hart, Keith. 1992. Market and state after the cold war: The informal economy reconsidered. In Contesting Markets, ed. Roy Dilley, 214-227. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Week Nine: Banking with the Poor
Bateman, Milford. 2010. Why Doesn't Microfinance Work? The Destructive Rise of Local Neoliberalism. London: Pluto Press
Elyachar, Julia. 2005. Markets of Dispossession: NGOs, Economic Development and the State in India. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Graeber, David. 2011. Debt: The First 5,000 Years. New York: Melville House Publishing
Rankin, Katherine Neilson. 2004. The Cultural Politics of Markets: Economic Liberalisation and Social Change in Nepal.
Yunus, Muhammad. 2003. Banker to the Poor: Micro Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty. New York: Public Affairs
Week Ten: Poverty Means Business
Cross, Jamie, and Alice Street. 2009. Anthropology at the bottom of the pyramid. Anthropology Today 25 (4): 4-9.
Dolan, Catherine S., and Linda Scott. 2009. Lipstick evangelism: Avon trading circles and gender empowerment in South Africa. Gender & Development 17 (2): 203-218.
Karnani, Aneel G. 2007 Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: A Mirage. Ross School of Business Paper No. 1035:
Prahalad, C. K. 2005. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Wharton School Publishing.
Yunus, Muhammad. 2010. Building Social Business: Capitalism That Can Serve Humanities Most Pressing Needs. New York: Public Affairs |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Jamie Cross
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Lindsay Hunter
Tel: (0131 6)51 1659
Email: |
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