Paper - Academic Registry and Council Secretariat - Queen Mary ...

TPB2012-015
Section 2 - Module Specification
Module Title Economics of developing countries
Module Code
Credit Value 15 Level 7 Mode of Delivery On Campus Semester Semester 2
Module Organiser
Dr Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, Lecturer in Economics
Pre-requisite modules Co-requisite modules Overlapping modules
n/a n/a n/a
1) Content Description
Provide a description of the module, as it will appear in the Module Directory and on the Student Information
System (approx. 70-80 words).
This course introduces contemporary theories and the empirical literature of the economics of developing countries with specific
reference to public policy delivery. The course will address the problems with public policy delivery in developing countries and
what solutions and strategies have been identified in the literature. The course will deal with debates such as centralised and
decentralised delivery methods, political economy issues of corruption and state capture, and the role of incentives among
politicians and bureaucrats in service delivery.
2) Module Aims
Specify the aims of the module, i.e. the broad educational purposes for offering this module.
This module aims to provide students with a strong foundation-level understanding of the recent debates in Development
Economics, theory and policy which is relevant for current developing country problems. The students will learn how to read
papers in Development Economics and think about developing country public policies in the context of theories of economic
development. In addressing the debates in the literature, the students will be introduced to important theoretical and empirical
issues that are discussed in the literature. The students should be able to read and interpret the literature in this field and apply
for policy purposes in their future careers.