ECON 129ES - Issues in Economic Development
5 upper-division quarter units
Instructor: Dr. Carlos Acevedo
Language of Instruction: Spanish/English
Purpose of the Course: The purpose of the course is to help students to take a look at the leading current issues in economic development from a developing country perspective. Specifically, the course is aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of the different factors that explain observed differences in economic development across countries, with a special focus on the interaction between trade and development, and between markets and the State. As a special case study, the course will analyze the available evidence on the NAFTA and CAFTA experiences.
Content
1. What is economic development? Overview
1.1. Measurement of key indicators
1.2. The many faces of underdevelopment
1.3. Income distribution in developing countries
1.4. Why are some countries so rich and others so poor?
1.5. The evolution of development economics
2. Economic inequality
2.1. What is economic inequality?
2.2. Measuring economic inequality
2.3. Inequality and development interconnections
2.4. Inequality, income and growth
3. Trade and development
3.1. International trade: world trade patterns
3.2. Sources of comparative advantage
3.3. Gains from trade?
3.4. Trade as an “engine of growth”
3.5. Trade as a mechanism of international inequality
4. Trade policy
4.1. Inward-oriented strategies: import substitution
4.2. Restricted trade: new Protectionist arguments
4.3. Export-oriented policies
4.4. Export promotion: lessons from experience
4.5. Trade policy reform
4.6. Issues in trade liberatization
4.7. Trade in primary exports
4.8. Impact of agricultural protection
4.9. NAFTA and CAFTA experiences
5. Markets, government, and policy
5.1. Policy prescriptions for economic development
5.2. Interaction of State and markets
5.3. The market mechanism as an instrument of development
5.4. Market failures
5.5. Role of the State
Basic References
Gillis, Malcolm, Dwight Perkins, Michael Roemer and Donald Snodgrass, Economics of Development, Norton.
Meier, Gerald, Leading Issues in Economic Development, Oxford University Press.
Ray, Debraj, Development Economics, Princeton University Press.
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