Department of Economics
Government College University
Lahore
Development Economics
Course Description
This course is designed to help students to broaden their knowledge about nature and scope of
development economics. It will help students to gain insight into our country’s situation in global
context and understand the problem of sustainable development. This course takes an
interdisciplinary approach to development economics by incorporating economic, social, political
and environmental factors that affect the process of development of a country. This course will also
help students to analyze the complex relationships between population growth and economic
development, role of education/innovation, economic growth, urbanization and globalization in
process of development. The course also covers the role of monetary and fiscal policies in reducing
poverty, income inequality and development of a country like Pakistan.
Course Objectives
 To introduce students with major issues and concepts of Development Economics
 To enable students to critically analyze the factors that can contribute to or hinder the
process of development
 To analyze historical trends of development in different countries
 To critically analyze different theories and model for economic development
 Give reliable and feasible policy options for sustainable development of country like
Pakistan
Teaching/Learning Methodology
Our learning/teaching methods will be followings:
 Lectures
 Text book and other publications
 Articles and handouts
 Class discussions based on reasoning and logic
 Objectivity and understanding
Basic methodology of this course is based upon the following philosophies
Knowledge can be created in the classroom and should not just come from teacher only
Beauty of question is half of knowledge
This course will provide a unique opportunity to every student to express his/her views about
different issues related to development economics. This course has an objective to encourage
students to think how each one of them can be beneficial for the society. Other than course
material, the main tool of learning in this course will be based on class discussions. Everybody
in the class is expected to participate and will be given respect. In this class, students will see
Insha Allah that how beauty of questions can generate knowledge and make things clear and
easy.
Recommended Text Books and reading materials
Reading from textbook and other material is compulsory and everybody must have the following
textbook. All other material will be uploaded to the website of www.econ123.weebly.com
Perkins, Radelet, and Lindauer, Economics of Development, Seventh Edition (New York: WW
Norton)
Selected Articles of Pakistan’s Development Review available at: http://www.pide.org.pk/
and http://ideas.repec.org/s/pid/wpaper.html
Human Development Reports (selected issues) available at UNDP website
Sen, Amertiya, Development as Freedom, available at
http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/INF9200/h12/readings/papers/Sen.pdf
Simon, Julian, The Ultimate Resource , Princeton University Press, 1996
Soubotina and Sheram, Beyond Economic Growth: Meeting the challenges of Global Development,
2000, The World Bank
Course Contents
Concept and measurement of development:
Different dimensions of development. The evolution of development doctrine, Sen.’ s
capabilities approach. Mehboob ul Haq view about development. Measuring economic
growth and development.
Goals and means of development. Comparing different levels of development
Theories of Development
Classic theories of development: Development as growth and the linear stages
theories. Structural changes models: Lewis theory of development, structural changes
and patterns of development. The neocolonial dependence model, the false- paradigm
models. The neoclassical counterrevolution: Challenging the static model: free
markets, public choice and market friendly approaches, traditional neoclassical growth
theory. Endogenous growth theory and its drawbacks.
Factors affecting development
Population growth and economic development. Pessimistic, optimistic, and
revisionist’s view about population growth and economic development.
Age structure transition and its impact of economic development.
Concept of demographic dividend and future opportunities for the country like
Pakistan. Role of age structure and economic development.
Poverty, inequality and development: Measuring inequality and poverty. Poverty,
inequality and social welfare of countries. Measures to reduce poverty, some areas of
interventions.
Human capital and development process
Role of education and Health in economic development
Improving health and education, why increasing income is not sufficient. Investigating
in education and health, the human capital approach
The gender gap: women and education
Problems of education sector in countries like Pakistan
Role of Education , scientific knowledge, innovation and technological improvement in
development of country. The problem of labor productivity. The Japanese economic
miracle. The role of Japanese worker in economic development.
Development and Economic Policies
Role of financial systems. Role of fiscal and monetary policies in economic
development
Financial Systems, Debt Burden and Development
Role of international financial institutions and debt burden
Structural adjustment program and developing countries.
The environment and Development
Some basic issues, population resources, and the environment. The need for policy
reforms, policy options for developing countries. Case study: the economy of Pakistan.
Natural resources and economic development
Assessment
Quizzes/Activities
Mid Term
Term Paper
Class Participation & Presentations
Final term paper
10
30
12
8
40
Attendance
Minimum attendance to participate in final examination is 80 %, you will be responsible for missing
the class material, activities and tasks.
What should you expect from me?
Being a student you have a right to ask questions about whatever I teach in the class. I ensure you
that every concept I will teach you will be taught with reference to real life examples, you may ask
about the relevance and practical use of any topic, content or even formula and in return same will be
expected from you. In this course, you are expected to understand, analyze, present, write and
speak about every topic we will study. Expect all above things from me during classes and I will
expect the same during exams