Syllabus – Spring 2010
Instructor: Dr. Prof. FAN Gang
Objective
The objective of this course is to understand the process and special issues of economic development. The development is the most and foremost important and difficult issue, and at the same time perhaps is the most confusing issue in current world. This course provides conceptual framework and methodology to understand the relationship and distinction between the development theories/issues and all other economic theories/issues, and based on that, to get better understanding of the policy debates in the real world.
Process
The presentations in the classroom are to explain main points of theories. Many details of models and theoretical arguments will be learned through home works and intensive readings by students themselves. Students may be asked to apply the theories they learn from the class to some real cases of development, either in a country or in a village.
Prerequisite
Students should be familiar with growth theory and most of basic growth models. Development is different from growth, but has to include the growth. Some knowledge of world economic history will be also very helpful! Please also consult an intermediate level textbook such as Gillis & others.
Grading
Grades will be assigned on the basis of student performance and weighted as follows:
Home work | 30percent |
Midterm exam | 30 percent |
Final exam | 40 percent |
Total | 100 percent |
Textbook
Malcolm Gillis, Dwight H. Perkins, Michael Roemer, and Donald R. Snodgrass. Economics of Development. New York/London: W. W. Norton & Company. 1983. vii + 599 pp.; 《发展经济学》，经济学译丛，中国人民大学出版社，1998 （第四版）.
Course outline
1. Introduction: Economics and Development
2. Growth models as start point of DE I: Classical and neoclassical
3. Growth models as start point of DE II: Endogenous models
4. Total factor productivity, theory and empirical study (China)
5 “Factors of Growth”, including both “inputs” and “efficiency factors”.
6. The reasons for “take-off” and stay on track for at least one generation: how to over come over the growth barriers
7. Equilibrium and disequilibrium growth
8. Growth and structural typology in different stages of modernization: empirical models
9. Objectives and Measurement of modernization or prosperity: GDP vs. Human Definition of the developing country and development
10. Models explaining why backward countries may not develop as the result of relative disadvantages, and policy implications (Latin America Structuralism models, Raul Prebisch & others)
11. Comparative advantages: the original theory
12. Comparative advantages of Endowment/Stock of growth factors:
13. “Macro” policies for economic development – how to speed up the structural change of growth factors so that the development can take place in a poor country
14. Micro strategy for companies in an developing country
15. Case study: other developing countries in the past.
16. Case study: China and Brics.
17. Government in the development
18. Political order in a developing society (Huntington)
Student Responsibilities
Attend ALL classes You are now in a graduate school, and your work ethics should be the same as what it would be in a high responsibility job.
The more you read (before or after the classes) the better!
Do your homework independently and think through by yourself!
Stay on top of the news – economic development is happening right now on every day in China one way and another. The current development issues may be included in your home-works or the midterm and final exams..
