This course will provide an introduction to the developmental challenges in Asia. The course will begin with introducing the distinction between concepts of economic growth and development. The course will have a strong emphasis on understanding the lives of the poor in Asian countries. We will attempt to diagnose the causes of poverty by analysing its components such as lack of sufficient access to education, savings, nutrition, and insurance and study how these can cause the persistence of poverty. We will also look at demographic and gender issues and discuss how the lessons we learn should help shape development policy. We will also study the constraints to the delivery of public goods such as corruption and political institutions. Policy implications emerging from the material we have studied will be also discussed.
Objectives:
- To understand the factors that lead to persistence of poverty and under- development in the empirical context of Asia.
- Learning how to examine the evidence on policy relevant interventions. This will involve looking at tables with statistical output. By the end of the course you should be more comfortable making inferences based on statistical output that is presented to you.
- To develop and sharpen your analytical and presentation skills by partic- ipating in class discussions.
- To acquire an appreciation of the issues involved in designing and evalu- ating developmental policies.
- To learn about a real social service agency (MINDS) and the challenges involved with impact evaluation when it comes to such agencies. The report you prepare as part of the project will have a real impact on their funding and operations.
Students developed an internal evaluation of WE CARE's programmes and operations to measure quantitatively the value of the services and activities provided by WE CARE, in relation to the money invested in WE CARE. They quantified the benefit to cost ratio created by WE CARE's services by examining different dimensions of impact such as client health, income, and government savings on incarceration, etc.