EFB341 Development Economics: An Immersive Experience
To view more information for this unit, select Unit Outline from the list below. Please note the teaching period for which the Unit Outline is relevant.
| Unit code: | EFB341 |
|---|---|
| Other requisite(s): | Subject to Unit Coordinator Approval. Students are required to complete a minimum of 48 credit points of study. |
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Timetable | Details in HiQ, if available |
| Availabilities |
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| CSP student contribution | $1,394 |
| Domestic tuition unit fee | $2,832 |
| International unit fee | $3,900 |
Unit Outline: Semester 1 2020, Gardens Point, Internal
| Unit code: | EFB341 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Other Requisite: | Subject to Unit Coordinator Approval. Students are required to complete a minimum of 48 credit points of study. |
| Coordinator: | Radhika Lahiri | r.lahiri@qut.edu.au |
Overview
This unit introduces students to the economic problems and challenges that fall under the purview of Development Economics and includes coursework as well as an immersive international field project to develop their understanding through a real-world application of their skills on a project with a placement organization. The field project may take place in different international location each year and will be facilitated by the unit coordinator in collaboration with Beyond Borders Learning Programs, the key host organization at these locations. Locations over various years: Mumbai, India (2018, 2019), Kathmandu, Nepal (2020). Other potential locations in future include Dhaka, Bangladesh and Colombo, Sri Lanka. The aim of this unit is to provide a basic grounding in development economics, as well as a grasp of various approaches and initiatives that have been used to solve key challenges associated with poverty and underdevelopment.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Apply knowledge of economic principles and methods to economic development problems, focusing on challenges arising in the implementation of developmental initiatives.
- Apply knowledge and critical thinking skills to analyse and develop solutions for real world problems in diverse contexts.
- Use effective teamwork practices and processes to research economic problems with peers.
- Apply knowledge of socially responsible behaviour in analysing development economics issues in international settings.
- Communicate economic ideas and solutions clearly and professionally in written and oral forms.
Content
This unit addresses the challenges of world poverty and development, focussing on how development policies and initiatives approach issues that impact on the health, education and welfare of the poor. It also addresses the risks faced by the poor and how a lack of access to finance exacerbates these problems. It considers the impact of microfinance institutions in alleviating these risks, particularly in the context small and medium enterprises (SME), child welfare and schooling, women’s empowerment, health and urban development. The coursework is followed by a two and a half to three week study program in the host location that entails visits to various microfinance institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and field trips to SMEs and local communities with a view towards developing an understanding of development economics at the grassroots level. The field trip will entail an intensive program designed to provide students with:
- experience in the applications of development economics models and concepts to a real world setting
- exposure to the challenges in policy making in the context of micro-finance in the sectors of health, women's empowerment and SMEs in the host location
- an intensive, short-term practicum through problem solving on a project in collaboration with industry professionals in the host location
- cross-cultural engagement and networking with local entrepreneurs, social workers and policy analysts in the host location
- talks delivered by experts in the area of development policy
QUT Business Capabilities (Undergraduate)
The content and assessment in this unit are aligned to a selection of the following set of QUT Business Capabilities, also known as Assurance of Learning Goals (AoLs). Developing these capabilities will assist you to meet the desired graduate outcomes set at QUT and equip you with the knowledge and skills to succeed in your chosen career.
Knowledge and Technological Skills (KS)
1.1 Demonstrate and apply integrated discipline (including technical) knowledge across the broad field of business with depth in one or more core business disciplines.
1.2 Apply technical and technological skills appropriate and effective for real world business purposes and contexts.
Higher Order Thinking (HO)
2.1 Investigate real world business issues and situations through the effective analysis, evaluation and synthesis of theory and practice.
2.2 Exercise independent judgement and initiative in adapting and applying knowledge and skills for effective planning, problem solving and decision making in diverse contexts.
Professional Communication (PC)
3.1 Use information literacy skills, and communicate effectively and professionally in written forms and using media appropriate for diverse purposes and contexts.
3.2 Use information literacy skills, and communicate effectively and professionally in oral forms, appropriate for diverse purposes and contexts.
Teamwork and Self (TS)
4.1 Exercise self-reflection, responsibility and accountability in relation to own learning and professional practice.
4.2 Apply teamwork knowledge and skills for effective collaboration across diverse purposes and contexts.
Social, Ethical and Global Understanding (SE)
5.1 Demonstrate and apply knowledge of ethical and legal principles and practices in analysing and responding to business issues.
5.2 Demonstrate and apply knowledge of socially responsible behaviour in analysing and addressing business issues in national and international business contexts.
Learning Approaches
The coursework prior to the field trip will take place in six sessions. These sessions will be delivered in an intensive mode, spread over three weeks (weeks 1, 2 and 3) during the summer semester. They will involve lecture, discussion and recitation sessions with a partially-flipped-classroom approach. There will be some preliminary assessment to prepare students for the field trip to follow. The field trip will span (roughly) weeks 7-9 of the summer semester. Weeks subsequent to the field trip will involve a concluding recitation session with multi-media presentations by students based on their perspectives of an issue in development economics, bringing together theory as well as the experiential learning of the issue during the field trip.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
Students will receive feedback in various forms throughout the semester which may include:
- Informal: verbal feedback in class, personal consultation
- Formal: in writing, such as checklists (e.g. criteria sheets), written commentary
- Direct: to individual students, either in written form or in consultation
- Indirect: to the whole class
Assessment
Overview
The assessment in this unit aims to support your achievement of the unit learning outcomes and course assurance of learning goals. The assessment has been designed in order to allow you to:
- receive feedback on your learning as you progress toward the development of knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes (formative assessment);
- demonstrate your learning in order to achieve a final grade (summative assessment).
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Exploratory Project Proposal and Analysis
A structured report and project proposal based on preliminary, research-based impressions of an issue(s) to be explored later in the context of the field trip in the host location and with reference to the organisations visited during that trip. This will include an issue or research question, the methodology used to address it, and an illustration of the method used using “mock” data. The assessment will be designed to prepare students to effectively participate and learn from projects undertaken with the placement organisations. Further details TBA.
Assessment: Engagement
Students are expected to develop a culture of active engagement and participation by contributing to discussions in the lecture and recitation sessions and during the field trip. They are also expected to contribute to discussions on online social media or blackboard posts (that are curriculum related) by the unit coordinator, fellow students and members of the host organisation. Assessment will be based on observations of peers (i.e. fellow students), the unit coordinator, the teaching assistant and members of the host organisation.
Assessment: Project Presentation and Reflection
This will involve a group presentation (which could include illustrative video/audio components), and a written reflection about the project undertaken in the host location. The presentation will be followed by an open Q&A session with audience (including students) asking questions of the group. The written component will include a reflective summary of your teamwork experience. To facilitate assessment the session will be recorded and students will submit their presentation and video diaries and written reflections to the unit coordinator. A dossier of your research including surveys, data collected and its analysis needs to be submitted for ethics clearance purposes. Assessment will be based on inputs from the unit coordinator, teaching assistant and any faculty members in the audience. The purpose of the presentation is not only for evaluating your presentation skills; it will also be used to assess the quality of your project work in the sense of a viva voce exam.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.
The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Requirements to Study
Requirements
Recommended prerequisites: BSB113 and BSB123 or equivalents
Resources
Resource materials include both printed and electronic resources of all types.
Resource Materials
Prescribed text(s)
Banerji and Duflo(2011), Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, Public Affairs.
Reference book(s)
Acemoglu and Robinson (2012), Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, Crown Business, Crown Publishing Group.
Collier (2007), The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, Oxford University Press.
Easterly (2002), The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics, The MIT Press.
Karlan and Appel (2011), More Than Good Intentions: How a New Economics is Helping to Solve Global Poverty, Dutton Penguin.
Karlan and Appel (2016), Failing in the Field: What We Can Learn When Field Research Goes Wrong, Princeton University Press.
Leigh(2018), Randomistas: How Radical Researchers Changed Our World, La Trobe University Press in conjunction with Black Inc.
Perkins, Radelet, Lindauer and Block (2012), Economics of Development, W.W. Norton.
Sachs (2006), The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities of Our Time, Penguin Books.
Thaler, R. H. and Sunstein, C. R. (2008). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness. Yale University Press.
Todaro and Smith (2015), Economic Development, Harlow, U.K.: Pearson
Other
Journal Articles/working papers and reports:
Banerjee et.al (2015) “The Miracle of Microfinance? Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation”, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 7(1), 22-53.
Banerji, A., and Duflo, E. (2007) “The Economic Lives of the Poor”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21(1), 141-167.
Banerji, A., and Duflo, E. (2010) “Giving Credit Where it is Due”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24(3), 61-80.
World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society and Behaviour. See: http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2015
Other Resources
The Blackboard site for this unit contains links to many additional resources that are pertinent to this unit, including supplementary lecture material.
Other resources that may be useful:
The key “textbook” Poor Economics has a website with lecture notes, videos other material; the link is below
The MIT Open Courseware site for the unit “Challenges of World Poverty” taught by the authors of Poor Economics has lecture notes, video lectures and other material of interest; the link is:
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/economics/14-73-the-challenge-of-world-poverty-spring-2011/
The edX site for the unit has the same material, but arranged in a manner more amenable to self-paced study. See: https://www.edx.org/course/the-challenges-of-global-poverty-4 . The material can be accessed for free if you audit the unit; however you need to enrol before the course expires.
Risk Assessment Statement
There are no out-of-the-ordinary risks associated with lectures or tutorials in this unit. You should, however, familiarise yourself with evacuation procedures operating in the buildings in which you attend classes and take the time to
view the Emergency video. Risk assessment of the field trip leg is performed by the host-institution Beyond Borders Learning Programs.