ECON 239: Development Economics
Winter 2023
Development Economics代写 You should select a low or lower-middle income developing country which you will focus on for both parts of the Country Study.
Country Study Part 1: Fact-Finding Mission Development Economics代写
You should select a low or lower-middle income developing country which you will focus on for both parts of the Country Study. For the first part of the study, you are required to provide a report summarizing key, salient facts about this country. For each of the following topics, you should provide measures of the country’s current status (i.e. for the most recent year for which you can find data) and of how it has changed in the last 20 years (given available data). In each case you should compare this status with that of Canada and, where possible, compare the country’s performance relative to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). You may also briefly summarize anecdotal evidence that is relevant, especially when hard data is unavailable.
Real per capita income (SDG 8): Provide the most recent best estimate of per capita income.What has the average economic growth rate been for the last 10 years? For the last 20 years?
Industrial structure (SDG 9): What are the shares of agriculture, mining, manufacturing and services in terms of output and employment? What are the most important sub-industries in terms of these aggregates? How has this changed over the last 20 years? Development Economics代写
Poverty and Inequality (SDG 1, 2, 10): Provide the most recent estimates of the headcount index, poverty gap, the human poverty index and the Gini index. How have these measures evolved over time? Are there estimates regarding the impacts of COVID-19 yet?
Geography: Does the country have coastal access? Are there geographical barriers to international and internal trade? How does it compare in terms of “remoteness”? What is its climate like?
History: Is the country an ex-colony and, if so, of which major power? When did it gain independence? Does it still have strong interactions with that power? Is there a significant history of internal conflict within the country? Is this related to past colonization?
Formal Institutions (SDG 16):
Briefly characterize the current political regime. Is it autocratic or democratic? How has this evolved in the last 20 years? What is the tradition of the legal system? How does this country rate in terms of law-enforcement quality and corruption?
Status of women (SDG 5): Find and provide relevant indices that reflect the economic, social and political status of women in your country relative to Canada.
Population: What is current population level and growth rate? How have these evolved in the last 30 years? Is it slowing down or speeding up? What about the birth rate and death rate? Development Economics代写
Provide similar information about the country’s dependency ratio.Education (SDG 4): Provide current and historical measures of enrolments in primary,secondary and tertiary education, years of education in the workforce and, if possible, indices of educational “quality”.
Health (SDG 3, 6): How has the country fared with respect to life expectancy, infant mortality,disease rates (esp. malaria) and success at eradicating disease? How does the country rank in terms of the human development index?
Urbanization (SDG 11): What is the allocation of the population across urban and rural areas?How has this changed over the last 20 years? What is happening in the biggest cities? Is recent urbanization rapid? Are slums forming? Briefly summarize the conditions.
Environmental Sustainability (SDG 7, 12, 13, 14, 15):
What are the country’s main environmental challenges? How does the country fare with respect to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and how have these changed over time?
Physical Infrastructure (SDG 9): What is the state of roads, rail links and other transports infrastructure? How has it changed over the last few decades?
International Trade and investment (SDG 8, 9, 17): What are its main exports and trading partners? How has trade evolved between this country and others? Where does the majority of this country’s foreign investment come from? How has it changed over the last 20 years?
Aid (SDG 17): How much official aid (overseas development assistance) is the country currently receiving? As a % of its GDP? How have these measures evolved over the last 20 years? Who are its main donors?
Sovereign borrowing and debt (SDG 17): Development Economics代写
How much does the government owe to foreign nations? How as this changed over the past 20 years? Is the country currently borrowing a lot relative to its own income?
Final Report: The text of your summary report should be no longer than 4000 words (excluding the bibliography). In writing your summary report you must decide on the best way to present your findings. For example, you could aim to write half a page on each topic. Alternatively, you might prefer to use tables to present the data and refer to them in the text. A limited number of graphs, on topics that you deem to be of particular importance, may also be helpful.
Bibliography: You should cite all data and other sources in a bibliography at the end of the report. For citations and bibliography, please use the format in the examples on the website. For data sources, you can use abbreviations in the text, such as WDI for World Development Indicators, then provide a key at the end.
Submission: Please submit your report on-line via the OnQ “Assignments” submission page by 10 p.m. on January 29th, 2023. Acceptable formats are Word and PDF (not Pages). The filename should be “Last name_First name_student number_Part1”. You can submit as many times as you wish prior to the deadline – your most recent submission will be kept. Your submission will automatically be checked for plagiarism using Turnitin, which will give you a score. If your score exceeds 20%, please revise your study to reduce the score and resubmit.
