140416 VO+UE T III - Development Economics (2009W)

By the beginning of the 21st Century a complex global environment of economic transformation and challenges has come into being. It is thus expected that developing countries would devise their development policies being conscious of this new environment. Under this environment, few issues in economics have experienced as much attention as the role of institutions and governance in the promotion of development. Good governance and effective formal and informal institutions, as nowadays recognized in the works of notable development economists and leading development institutions, are fundamentally influencing our views on the route for development. Expected changes are so complex and intense that they would require not only a response to the external environment and existing socioeconomic conditions, but also a new approach to development. This academic course would attempt to provide: first, a synopsis of the theories of economic growth and economic development, with due consideration of the new growth and development theories; and a review of theoretical explanations on inequality and poverty; second, an account of the development role and scope of the international development assistance. Matters of consideration would be the current debate over development assistance: Sachs and the "Big Push" and the "Easterly Critique"; conditionality, as demanded by international development institutions and bilateral donors alike, including the World Bank and other sister institutions; and third, an abridgment of the relevance of good governance and social capital for the attainment of economic development and sustainable growth The course will thus focus on the route for development; on the importance of economic growth; on the relevance of good governance and social capital formation, and on the view of conditionality as an approach to promote development. The course will also provide for a review of project documents, loan agreements, and ODA conditionality for operations financed in Africa (Cameroon) and Latin America (Colombia) by leading multilateral financial institutions.