ECON 43850 01 WORLD POVERTY AND INEQUALITY ACROSS NATIONS Fall 2007, T Th, 2-3.15, DeBartolo 306 Instructor: Prof. Amitava Dutt, Decio 420, 6317594, adutt@nd.edu Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12.45 PM -1.45 PM, Tuesdays, 9.30 10.30 AM, and by appointment Preliminary 1. Course Description There are vast differences in levels of income and output between what are called economically developed and less-developed countries of the world. Most of the world s poor live in the less-developed countries, although poverty also exists in the developed countries. This course examines the causes and consequences of world poverty and inequality across nations and discusses possible ways of reducing such poverty and inequality. Focusing on countries, it examines the extent of world poverty and inequality, and studies trends in them. It examines why world poverty and inequality persists, focusing mainly on factors involving interactions between rich and poor countries (such as international trade, international capital flows and technology transfers) and the consequences of globalization. It explores why people all over the world should be concerned about these problems and what can be done to deal with the problems. 2. Prerequisites Students are required to have already taken a principles or introductory courses in economics and statistics; intermediate courses in micro and macroeconomics, and econometrics, also provide useful background. Some of the material covered will be more sophisticated in nature, but the course will cover the material required to prepare students for that material. 3. Course plan For the first couple of days the instructor will provide a brief overview of the material covered in the syllabus and reading list. After that the students will be asked to select two topics of their choice on which they will write papers and make in-class presentations. Students can formally select topics after discussing it with the instructor. Other students will be required to participate in discussions on each topic following the presentations. The final version of one paper is due on or before October 16 (the Tuesday before the midsemester break) and the other on or before December 11 (the last day of class). The recommended length of each paper is 14 to 16 pages (including notes and references). Students are required to turn in an outline and at least one draft of each paper before submitting the final versions. 1
August September October November December 28 Introduction 30 World Poverty 4 Inequality across nations 6 Inequality across nations 11 Inequality across nations 13 Why it matters 18 Why it matters 20 Growth, development, underdevelopment 25 Growth, development, underdevelopment 27 Growth, development, underdevelopment 2 Trade and inequality 4 Trade and inequality 9 Trade and inequality 11 Factor movements 16 Factor movements 18 Factor movements 23 Fall Break 25 Fall Break 30 Factor movements 1 Technology transfers 6 Technology transfers 8 Technology transfers 13 Environmental and social factors 15 Environmental and social factors 20 Political Economy 22 Thanksgiving 27 Political Economy 29 Political Economy 4 What is to be done 6 What is to be done 11 What is to be done 4. Grading The grading will be based on the following: 45 % on the first paper. 45 % on the second paper. 10 % on presentations and class participation. 5. Syllabus and Reading List Don t be too concerned about the length of the reading list. You don t have to read all or even most of it unless you really want to. I will mention the key readings for each class meeting ahead of time. Several of the key readings are available on electronic reserve (and marked with **); many others (books) are available on regular reserve (marked with *). 2
General Readings: Princeton University Press, 2005, paperback, ISBN 10: 0-691-13051-5, 2007. UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) Human Development Report 2005: Oxford University Press, ISBN-10: 0195305116, Paperback Alice H. Amsden, Escape from Empire MIT Press, 2007, ISBN 13:978-0-262-01234-8. Syllabus 1. World Poverty Oxford University Press, chap. 1. Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, New York: Anchor Books, 1999, chaps. 1-3. 2. Inequality Across Nations Sala-i-Martin, Xavier (1996). The Classical Approach to Convergence Analysis, Economic Journal, 106 (137), 1019 36. Pritchett, Lant (1997). Divergence, Big Time, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 11:3, 3 17. Jones, Charles I. (1997). On the Evolution of the World Income Distribution, Journal Economic Perspectives, 11:3, 19 36. Princeton University Press, 2005, chaps. 1 through 11. 3. Why world poverty and inequality matter Princeton University Press, 2005, chap. 12. Oxford University Press, chap. 2, 5. Sachs, Jeffrey D.. The strategic significance of global inequality, Wilson Quarterly, 3
2001, 24(3), 187-98. 4. Growth, development and underdevelopment Amitava Krishna Dutt, Economic Growth, forthcoming in P. O Hara, ed., International Encyclopedia of Public Policy. Michael P. Todaro and Stephen C. Smith, Economic Development, 8 th ed., Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2002, chapters 4 and 5. Charles I. Jones, Introduction to Economic Growth, 2 nd ed., New York, W W Norton, 2002, chapters 2 and 5. Penguin Press, 2005, chap. 3. 5. Trade and inequality Alice H. Amsden, Escape from Empire MIT Press, 2007, chap.5 Oxford University Press, chap. 3 Amitava Krishna Dutt, Globalization, trade liberalization and conflict: a Southern perspective, in B. N. Ghosh, ed., Globalisation and the Third World: A Study of Negative Consequences, Houndmills, UK and New York: Macmillan / Palgrave, 2006, pp. 233-50. Ha-Joon Chang, Kicking away the ;adder globalization and economic development in historical perspective, in J. Michie, ed., The Handbook of Globalisation, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2003. 6. Factor movements and inequality Ha-Joon Chang, Globalisation, transnational corporations, and economic development, in D. Baker, G. Epstein and R. Pollin, eds., Globalisation and progressive economic policy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. William Easterly, The elusive quest for growth, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, chaps. 6, 7. Amitava Krishna Dutt, The flawed logic of capital account liberalization, Economic and Political Weekly (India), May 13-19, 2006, vol. 41, No. 19, 1850-53. Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and its discontents, New York: W W Norton, 2002, chapter 3, p. 67-73, chapter 4. 4
Oxford University Press, chap. 3. Alice H. Amsden, Escape from Empire MIT Press, 2007, chap.4. Jagdish Bhagwati, In defense of globalization, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, chapters 12 13, 14. Penguin Press, 2005, chap. 13. 7. Technology transfers and convergence? Lucas, Robert E. Some macroeconomics for the 21 st century, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(1), Winter 2000, 159-68. Ha-Joon Chang, Globalisation, economic development and the role of the state, London and New York: Zed Books and Third World Network, 2003, chapter 8. Abramovitz, Moses (1986). Catching Up, Forging Ahead, and Falling Behind, Journal of Economic History, 46:2, 385 406. Baumol, William J. (1986). Productivity Growth, Convergence, and Welfare: What the Long-Run Data Show, American Economic Review, 76:5, 1072 85. Alice Amsden, The rise of the rest, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, chap. 3. 8. Environmental and social factors Jagdish Bhagwati, In defense of globalization, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, chapters 10, 11, 17. Ajit Singh and Ann Zammit, Labor standards and race to the bottom, ESRC Center for Business, University of Cambridge, Working Paper, 2004. 9. Political economy and international institutions Alice H. Amsden, Escape from Empire MIT Press, 2007, chaps. 1, 2, 3, 6-11. Penguin Press, 2005, chap. 11. Amitava Krishna Dutt, World Trade Organization, forthcoming, Phil O Hara, ed., International Encyclopedia of Public Policy. 5