Course 2024-2025

Development and Society : Economic Approaches [ECONM822]

  • 5 credits
  • 30h
  • 1st quarter
Language of instruction: English

Learning outcomes

The goal of the course is to present the latest developments of the research on the role of institutions and development. The students will work on both theoretical and empirical papers that will be presented during the course.  Class presentations of articles will ensure that students are able to present and understand research papers by themselves.

The students will learn:

- how the latest economics research has tackled the question of the role of institutions, history and culture in economic development

- to form their own critical view about the determinants of economic development

- to read and present research articles on the theme

Content

We will question the role of "institutions" in the development of countries. Starting from the observations that differences between countries cannot be explained only by geographical or endowment differences, we will then see how history matters, and that institutional arrangements can have long lasting impact. To cover the various dimensions of "institutions": we will combine cross country comparisons of national level institutions and within country local institutional variation, as well as take into account both "formal" and "informal" institutions. Taking the example of colonization both at the macro and micro level, we will show that the institutional structure has central role in the level of development of countries. Turning to informal institutions, we will then see what role they play, and how they interact with the development process. More specifically, we will turn to the other side of the relationship between development and institutions, showing how institutions are in turn affected by development. Finally, we will study an aspect of institutional arrangements that has been considered central to development: property rights, and more specifically, various arrangements over land ownership.


Evaluations

Oral presentation (25%) Written exam (75%).

Note that the evaluation may change to adapt to the sanitary conditions.

Both the oral presentation and written exam will be ideally done at university, but may have to be done online if required.

Language of instruction

English

Location for course

NAMUR

Organizer

Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales et de gestion
Rue de Bruxelles, 61
5000 NAMUR

Degree of Reference

Master's Degree