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ECON3171: DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS

Please ensure you check the module availability box for each module outline, as not all modules will run in each academic year. Each module description relates to the year indicated in the module availability box, and this may change from year to year, due to, for example: changing staff expertise, disciplinary developments, the requirements of external bodies and partners, and student feedback. Current modules are subject to change in light of the ongoing disruption caused by Covid-19.

Type Tied
Level 3
Credits 20
Availability Available in 2024/2025
Module Cap
Location Durham
Department Economics

Prerequisites

  • EITHER Macroeconomics (ECON2011) AND Microeconomics (ECON2021) OR Economic Theory (ECON2291)

Corequisites

  • None.

Excluded Combinations of Modules

  • None.

Aims

  • To provide students with insights into some of the key issues affecting the development of countries.
  • To stimulate students to study, present and debate their own ideas and analyses of these issues.
  • To widen students' perceptions of the world and of the applicability of economic science and to motivate them to retain that perception.
  • To provide the opportunity for students to build on knowledge and key skills acquired in their second year studies.

Content

  • Content will include the relationship between the development of countries and topics such as:
  • Structural transformation,
  • Climate change,
  • Agriculture and famines,
  • Poverty and inequality,
  • Physical capital and technology,
  • Human capital,
  • Demography,
  • Internal and international labour migration,
  • Formal and informal institutions,
  • International trade and openness,
  • Natural resources,
  • Foreign aid.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

  • Theories, controversies, policies and case studies of how countries attempt to grow and develop over time.

Subject-specific Skills:

  • Application of economic analysis to lower income countries

Key Skills:

  • critical and analytical thinking
  • problem solving
  • written communication
  • own learning
  • working with numbers
  • working with others
  • bibliographic search and information retrieval.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • Teaching is by lectures and seminars. Learning takes place through attendance at lectures; preparation and participation in seminar classes and private study.
  • Formative assessment is by means of a written assignment.
  • Summative assessment is by means of a written assignment.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Lectures2010 in term 1, 10 in term 21 hour20 
Seminars84 in term 1, 4 in term 21 hour8Yes
Preparation and Reading172 
Total200 

Summative Assessment

Component: AssignmentComponent Weighting: 100%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
One written assignment4,000 words100Same

Formative Assessment

One written piece of work to prepare students for the summative assignment.

More information

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