Mitchell Harwitz

Office: 427 Fronczak Hall

Office Telephone: 645-2121, x30

Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday, 11:00 A.M - Noon. AND BY APPOINTMENT

Class:, Monday, Wednesday 3:00 - 4:20 P.M. NSC 222

Course Objectives

1. To achieve an overview of several major policy problems in developing economies, based on: assigned readings in the text, on readings and materials found through use of the INTERNET (the WORLD-WIDE WEB); on data drawn from the World Development Indicators (WDI) CD-ROM; on lecture material; and on case studies and the problems analyzed therein. There will be emphasis on learning to test generalizations by systematic use of data.

2. To develop some expertise in the problems of a particular country whose data are drawn from the WDI CD-ROM and researched on the Web.

3. To assess the usefulness and the effects of the policy "prescriptions" offered to poor countries world wide by such institutions as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the OECD.

We shall pay attention to "transition economies" (Poland and Russia), to the presently troubled Asian tigers (Indonesia, Korea, and Malaysia), and closer places like Brazil and Mexico. Not everyone can choose China as their favorite topic for research, however interesting it is.

Text

The text is Gillis, Perkins, Roemer, and Snodgrass, Economics of Development, 4th Edition, 1996, Norton, ISBN 0-393-96851-0. It comes with a Study Guide and Workbook by Bruce Bolnick, ISBN 0-393-96852-9.
 
 

Grading

There will be four in-class quizzes that account for 50% of the grade. 20% of the grade will depend on a set of worked exercises, based on data analysis and problems in the Study Guide. The remainder of the grade will depend on the final paper. The paper will take the form of a case study or a report on a policy problem suggested by your work in accord with objectives 2 and 3 above. The FIRST PART of the paper will be a brief country report based on objective 2. The four quizzes are scheduled for:February 16, March 15, April 12, and May 1. The first part of the paper will be due February 21.

Statistical Analysis in the Course

The 1998 WDI database is now installed on the server in Park 450, the College of Arts and Sciences Statistical Analysis Laboratory (CASSAL). Data for research purposes can be extracted from that source and copied onto a computer disk in EXCEL format. In the first several weeks of the course the members of the class will work both in NSC 222 and in Park 450 to learn how to sort data out of the 500+ time series available on the WDI CD-ROM, copy them onto a computer file that is manipulable with MICROSOFT EXCEL software, and use the functions available on EXCEL to study questions of interest. This part of the course will be organized around collaborative learning applied to research techniques, to manipulation of data, and to hypothesis development and testing. Members of the class will be trained to use techniques like regression analysis to verify and test hypotheses.

I sincerely hope that the students in the course will learn to work effectively with each other, with the resource embodied in the WDI CD-ROM, and with the tools contained in EXCEL and other such statistical packages.

The CASSAL facility is reserved for the use of this course each Monday afternoon during class hours.

As an introduction to statistical and other resources on the web, here is an excellent general site:

Bill Goffe's "Resources for Economists on the Internet"
 

This site has a complete Table of Contents that can be reached from a hyper-link on its Home Page, and the Table of Contents has a section called NON-US DATA. Among other things, it allows you to connect to

Economic Growth Research at the World Bank
 

This site in turn has links at the bottom of the homepage to

Economic Growth Resources at Oxford
 

If you have questions about the course, or about any of the foregoing information,  click here to e- mail me.

ECO 416                                                                                                                             SPRING 2000

Schedule.

Dates when the class can meet in CASSAL appear in bold print.

The four quizzes are scheduled for:February 16, March 15, April 10, and May 1. The first part of the paper will be due February 21.

Dates                                                                 Reading, Topic, or Activity
 

January 19   Introduction to the course. Discussion of characteristics of Poor Countries. Demonstration of

the data base.

January 24 - February 16.         Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 in text

January 24, 26       Workbook, p. 20.

January 31,             Begin Chs. 3,4, World Development Reports

February 1 , 7, 9, 14      Regularities of Development. Connected Theories.

February 16. First Quiz Through Chapter 4

February 21 - March 1 Chapter 7: Sustainable Development and Environmental Policies

March 6, 8, 13, 15. Chapters 5 and 6. Ch. 5, Markets, Controls, Interference

20, 22. Ch. 6, Open Economies, Crises, and Adjustment Policies

March 15 Quiz: Chapters 4 and 5.

March 27 - April 5. Chapter 8. Population and Interactions between Population and

 
Environmental Stress

April 12 Quiz Chapters 6 and 8

April 10 - 26 Chapters 11, 15 and 19. Selected sections.

April 10, 12, 17,    Economic openness, inequality and growth, policies toward the  very poor, microfinance

April 19, 24, 26      (the Grameen Bank).

May 1 Quiz