Document Type

Graduate Syllabus

Date

Spring 2022

School

Diplomacy

Course Number

DIPL 6170 WB

Course Description

The main premise of graduate level work Is change. Change requires openness to new ideas. It also requires willingness to abandon old ones. In order to be successful in this course, you should be willing to unlearn and rethink many of the perceptions you might have about economic development: You already know a great deal, taught by politicians, media, roommates, friends, and relatives. Most of these are either incomplete or simply wrong!

Accordingly, to better understand different aspects of economic development, we provide in depth analysis of current aspects of economic development. To do so, instead of picking the issues haphazardly, we focus on the issues highlighted in one of the most recent World Development Reports, World Development Report 2017 (WDR 2017): Governance and the Law . We answer following questions: Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure?

However, before we study specific issues from the report (module 3), in order to better understand them and being able to put them in a proper context, first (module 1), we will read three papers on history, evolution, and current status of the economic development thinking, and the three main dimensions of economic development —poverty, growth, and inequality; second (module2), we will read various articles on different current themes of economic development such as growth and productivity; entrepreneurship and access to credit; infrastructure, competition, and growth; and labor laws, jobs, and education.

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