Università Roma Tre

This course presents the latest thinking in economic development with a comprehensive approach. The pace and scope of economic development continues its rapid, uneven, and sometimes unexpected evolution. This course explains the unprecedented progress that has been made in many parts of the developing world, but fully confronts the enormous problems and challenges that remain to be addressed in the years ahead. The course shows the wide diversity across the developing world in their extent of economic development and other characteristics; and the differing positions in the global economy that are held by developing countries. The field of economic development is versatile and has much to contribute regarding these differing scenarios. Thus, the course also underlines common features that are exhibited by a majority of developing nations, using the insights of the study of economic development. The still relatively small number of countries that have essentially completed the transformation to become developed economies, such as South Korea and Singapore, are also examined as potential examples for other developing countries to follow. Both theory and empirical analysis in development economics have made major strides, and this course brings these ideas and findings to students. Development economics provides critical insights into how we got to where we are, how great progress has been made in recent years, and why many development problems remain so difficult to solve. The principles of development economics are also key to the design of successful economic development policy and programs as we look ahead. At the same time, international development is an interdisciplinary subject, in which approaches and insights from anthropology, finance, geography, health sciences, political science, psychology, and sociology have had significant influence on the subject, and are considered throughout the text. Some approaches that began as explicit critiques and alternatives to what were then limits to development economics have become central to its study. For example, behavioral economics and experimental research now play central roles in the field. Legitimate controversies are actively debated in development economics, and so the text presents contending theories and interpretations of evidence, with three goals. The first goal is to ensure that students understand real conditions and institutions across the developing world. The second is to help students develop analytic skills while broadening their perspectives of the wide scope of the field. The third is to provide students with the resources to draw independent conclusions as they confront development problems, their sometimes ambiguous evidence, and real-life development policy choices—ultimately, to play an informed role in the struggle for economic development and ending extreme poverty.

1 Introducing Economic Development: A Global Perspective. Sustainable Development and Agenda 2030.
2 Comparative Economic Development
3 Classic Theories of Economic Growth and Development
4 Contemporary Models of Development and Underdevelopment
5 Poverty, Inequality, and Development
6 Population Growth and Economic Development: Causes, Consequences, and Controversies
7 Urbanization and Rural-Urban Migration: Theory and Policy
8 Human Capital: Education and Health in Economic Development
9 Agricultural Transformation and Rural Development
10 The Environment and Development
11 Development Policymaking and the Roles of Market, State, and Civil Society
12 International Trade Theory and Development Strategy
13 Balance of Payments, Debt, Financial Crises, and Sustainable Recovery: Cases and Policies
14 Foreign Finance, Investment, Aid, and Conflict: Controversies and Opportunities
15 Finance and Fiscal Policy for Development

Todaro, M.P., and S.C. Smith. Economic Development. 13th edition. Pearson Education, 2020. ISBN:978-1292291154, only chapters 1 to 10, excluding chapters 11 to 15