MPH_DEEC Development Economics

Faculty of Economics and Administration
Autumn 2013
Extent and Intensity
2/2. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Dagmara Katreniaková (lecturer)
Dagmara Katreniaková (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
Ing. Petr Smutný, Ph.D.
Department of Business Management – Faculty of Economics and Administration
Contact Person: Ing. Bc. Bohdana Čechová
Supplier department: Department of Business Management – Faculty of Economics and Administration
Timetable
Mon 14:35–16:15 S308
  • Timetable of Seminar Groups:
MPH_DEEC/01: Mon 16:20–17:55 S308, D. Katreniaková
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
The capacity limit for the course is 24 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/24, only registered: 0/24, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/24
Course objectives
The goal of this course isto present an overview of the field of development economics and to discuss how economic analysis has been applied to issues related to developing countries. We will talk about topics such as income distribution, poverty and poverty trap, health, education, population growth, migration, corruption and growth. Classes are opened for discussion and additional topics can be added in case of interest.
Syllabus
  • The course starts on Monday, September 16th and ends on Monday, December 9th.
  • This is a tentative schedule and may be updated based on students´progress
  • Lecture 1: Introduction I
  • What is the course about? Course overview, goals and expectations.
  • Income distribution of developing countries
  • Economic growth, theories of growth
  • Exercise Session: Economic inequality and its measures
  • Lecture 2: Introduction II
  • Many faces of underdevelopment
  • Exercise Session: What is poverty? Poverty trap?
  • Lecture 3: Food
  • Does Nutrition based trap exist?
  • Exercise Session: Introduction to field experiments, quiz no.
  • Lecture 4: Health
  • Healthcare behavior in developing countries
  • Exercise Session: Current state of research on improving health conditions, including nutrition
  • Lecture 5: Education
  • Education and its importance, education production function
  • Absenteeism of both, students and teachers and poor performance
  • Exercise Session: Current state of research on education, guiz no. 2
  • Lecture 6: Family
  • Household model
  • Fertility decisions, population growth and family planning
  • Additional Reading: Amartya Sen: 100 million missing women, New York Review of Books
  • Exercise Session: Midterm
  • Lecture 7: Risk and Insurance
  • Are poor under stress? Are poor risk lovers or risk averse?
  • Exercise Session:
  • Additional Reading: Besley, Timothy, "Nonmarket Institutions for credit and risk sharing in low income Countries", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9, pages 115-127
  • Lecture 8: Credit
  • Economic of lending to the poor
  • Exercise Session: Microfinance, quiz no. 3
  • Lecture 9: Savings
  • Do poor people want to save? Can poor people save?
  • Exercise Session: Current state of research on credit and savings
  • Lecture 10: Enterprise activities of poor
  • Exercise Session: guiz no. 4
  • Lecture 11: Institutions
  • The quality of institutions in developing countries
  • The role of institutions in economic development
  • Exercise Session: Revision
  • Lecture 12: Final exam
Literature
    recommended literature
  • Ester Durflo and Abhijit Banerjee: Poor Economics
  • Debraj Ray: Development Economics
  • Dambisa Mayo: Dead Aid
  • Jeffrey D. Sachs: The end of Poverty
Teaching methods
Lectures and Exercise sessions
Assessment methods
Course requirements:
Written midterm - accounts for 30 points
Written final exam - accounts for 50 points
Quizzes - there will be four short written guizzes, each will account for 5 points (total 20 points)
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught only once.
Information about innovation of course.
This course has been innovated under the project "Inovace studia ekonomických disciplín v souladu s požadavky znalostní ekonomiky (CZ.1.07/2.2.00/28.0227)" which is cofinanced by the European Social Fond and the national budget of the Czech Republic.

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The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2011.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/econ/autumn2013/MPH_DEEC