Econ 387: Economic
Development of Latin America T. Gindling
http://userpages.umbc.edu/~tgindlin Office: 330 Public
Policy Bldg.
Spring, 2012 MW: 4:00-5:15
UMBC and by appointment.
Patrice Franko, (2007) The
Puzzle of Latin American Economic Development, Third Edition, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,
Additional readings for this class can
be downloaded (the links are given below).
These additional readings include articles from scholarly journals in
the fields of economics and economic development, data and reports from
international agencies that advise countries on economic development policies, and
short excerpts from books.
Research
Project: You must choose
ONE of the following research projects:
1. Paper: You may write a
10-15 page paper discussing in detail the process of structural adjustment
reforms in a specific Latin American country in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. The papers are discussed in detail on the
last three pages of this handout. If you choose to do the paper, by April 9 you
must hand to me a sheet of paper with the name of the country that you will
study and at least three of the papers or books that you will use in writing
your paper (in a correct bibliographic format).
The final papers are due on or before the last day of class (May 9).
2. Weekly Report on One Latin American
Country:
You may choose a specific Latin American country and, each week on Wednesday,
give to me a short (one paragraph to one page) description of the most
important news story related to economic development in that country in the
past week. You must cite the source of the
story (see the discussion on citing sources later in the syllabus). You
must also provide a short justification for why that particular story is the
most important for that week.
You may use any news source to gather your information. Some websites that have been submitted by
students in the past are on the web page for this course. Other sources of
information include: The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times of
London, and The Economist. If you choose to do the weekly reports,
you must let me know which country you have chosen by Monday, Feb. 13. Your first report will be due Wednesday, Feb.
15. You must give this weekly report to me
by the end of class each Wednesday. You are not required to submit a report on March
14 (mid-term exam) nor March 21 (Spring break).
In calculating your course grade I will drop the drop the report with
the lowest grade. Therefore, although
you will submit 11 reports, you will be graded only on 10.
Grading: Midterm Exam (March 14) 100
points
Final Exam (May 14) 100
points
Research
Project
75 points
Class
Participation 25 points
300 points
Reading
List
Economic
Development of Latin America (Econ 387)
T.
Gindling
I. Introduction
to
Victor Bulmer-Thomas (2003), "Latin
American Economic Development: An Overview," in Victor Bulmer Thomas, The
Economic History of Latin America Since Independence; Second Edition, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, England, pp. 1-10. http://bilder.buecher.de/zusatz/21/21973/21973569_lese_1.pdf
II. Measuring
Economic Development
Franko,
chapters 1, 11 and 13.
U. N. Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), 2011, Social Panorama of Latin America 2011:
Briefing Paper, Santiago, Chile, pages 11-16. http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/xml/5/45175/2011-819_PSI-Summary-WEB.pdf
Ravi Kanbur,
2001, "Economic Policy, Distribution and Poverty: The Nature of the
Disagreements," World Development, 29(6), pp.1083-1094.http://www.ifad.org/poverty/lecture.pdf
Lopez-Calva,
Luis and Nora Lustig, 2009, “The Recent Decline of
Inequality in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Peru,” presented at
the 20th Economia Panel, Universidad Tocuato de Tella, Buenos Aires,
Argentina, October 2. http://www.cid.harvard.edu/Economia/NLustig%20et%20al.pdf
III.
Colonialism and
Franko,
chapter 2.
IV. World War II
to the 1970's: Structuralism, Dependency Theory and Import Substitution
Industrialization
Franko,
chapters 3 and 8.
Andre Gunther
Frank (1967), Capitalism and Underdevelopment in
S. Valenzuela and A. Valenzuela (1987),
"Modernization and Dependency: Alternative Perspectives on the Study of
Latin America", in H. Munoz, ed., From Dependency to Development, Westview Press, Boulder, pp.24-31. http://pics3441.upmf-grenoble.fr/articles/inde/Modernization%20and%20Dependency.pdf
OPTIONAL: Good explanations of some
basic international trade and finance concepts is available free on-line
in Steven Suranovic’s on-line textbooks:
International
Finance Theory and Policy (http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/catalog/editions/p61958) and
International
Trade Theory and Policy (http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/catalog/editions/p205113)
MIDTERM
EXAM
V. The 1980's:
Debt Crisis, Recession and Stabilization
Franko, chapter 4
Jeffrey Sachs (1985), "External
Debt and Macroeconomic Performance in Latin America and East Asia", Brookings
Papers on Economic Activity 2, pp.523-573. http://admin.earth.columbia.edu/sitefiles/file/about/director/pubs/BPEA1985_2.pdf
VI. The 1990's:
Structural Adjustment
John Williamson (1990), "The
Progress of Policy Reform in Latin America," chapter 9 in John Williamson,
ed., Latin American Adjustment: How Much has Happened, Policy Analysis
in International Economics 28, Institute for International Economics,
Washington, April, pages 353-380.
http://books.google.com/books?id=48EIBYwdzmUC&pg=PA3&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false
Franko, chapter
6.
Eduardo Lora, 2001, “A Decade of
Structural Reforms in
http://www.iadb.org/res/publications/pubfiles/pubWP-466.pdf
VII. The 1990s: International
Capital Flows, Financial Crisis and Dollarization
Franko,
chapters 5 and 7.
Andrew Berg and Eduardo Borensztein, 2000, “Full Dollarization, The
Pros and Cons,” International Monetary Fund Economic Issues No. 24.http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/issues/issues24/index.htm
VIII. The New
Century
Franko,
chapter 15.
Zettelmeyer, Jeromin, 2006, “Growth and Reform in
Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars Latin American Program, 2007, The ‘New Left’ and Democratic
Governance in Latin America, Washington, August, Chapters 1, 2 and 3 (pages
3-31).
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/NewLeftDemocraticGovernance.pdf
Lustig, Nora and Daryl
McLeod, 2011, “Inequality and Poverty under Latin America's New Left Regimes,” Tulane University
Economics Working Paper 1117, March.
http://econ.tulane.edu/RePEc/pdf/tul1117.pdf
Description of the Paper
A.
Topic:
Pick one Latin American country and
discuss in detail the process of structural adjustment reforms of the 1980s,
1990s and 2000s.
By one month before the final class you
must hand to me a one paragraph description of the country you plan to study,
as well as a short bibliography (including at least three articles and/or
books).
B.
Structure:
The
structure of the paper should be as follows.
i. Briefly
describe the economy and history of the country you are studying (2-3
pages).
ii. Discuss the structural adjustment reforms
the government has enacted, or plans to enact (4-5 pages).
iii. How did these policies affect
economic growth, income inequality and poverty?
(2-3 pages)
iv. Lastly, analyze these policies from
the point of view of a development economist and present your own opinion
and analysis of the policies used by the government (2-3 pages). Your opinion and analysis should be based on
your knowledge of economics.
C.
Possible Sources:
You may consult books, newspapers,
magazines, or scholarly journal articles.
I strongly encourage you to cite scholarly journal articles. Some scholarly journals which may help are: World
Development, Latin American Research Review, Journal of
Developing Areas, Journal of Development Studies, Economic
Development and Cultural Change, and Journal of Development Economics. Another good source of articles is the World
Bank Working Paper series. These working
papers are available from the World Bank bookstore at Pennsylvania and 17th
Street, N.W. in Washington. Possible
sources of data include the World Development Report of the World Bank,
the UN Statistical Tables, the UN
Human Development Report, and the IMF World Financial Outlook
(all of which are published yearly).
D.
Citing Sources:
You must cite the sources for the
information used in your paper. It is necessary
to always cite sources not only for direct quotes but also when you are
paraphrasing data or arguments that are not your own. The paper must also include a
bibliography. The bibliography should
contain only those articles and books that you consulted (read) in
writing the paper.
“Plagiarism” is when you represent
the words and/or ideas of others as your own.
If you do not cite the sources of the words and ideas of others that you
use in your paper, you are guilty of plagiarism. Plagiarism is a violation of
the UMBC honor code, and if you plagiarize you could be expelled from the
university. Because there are very good
computer programs are available to help professors to detect plagiarism,
plagiarism is also relatively easy to detect.
If I find that you have plagiarized in your papers, you will be punished
in accordance with the UMBC honor code, so don’t do it.
You may use any generally accepted
method of citing sources in your paper. I suggest citing sources by including
after the information: (Authors, date of publication), with the full citation
in the bibliography. Below are two
examples, the first citing the source of a direct quote, the second citing the
source of an argument which I paraphrase.
Example One: According to one authority, "bad writing
does not get read" (McCloskey, 1987, p.5).
Example
Two: Many economists write very badly (McCloskey, 1987).
You may use any generally accepted
method in your bibliography. I suggest
that your bibliography refer to books and article in the following manners:
For
books:
Author(s), date published, Title of
Book, publisher, city of publication.
For
example:
Mitch, David, 1992, The
Rise of Popular Literacy in Victorian
For
journal articles:
Author(s), date published, "Title
of Article," Journal, Volume, Number, month of publication, page
numbers.
For
example:
Gindling, T. H., Marsha Goldfarb and
Chun-Chig Chang, 1995, "Changing Returns to
Education in Taiwan," World Development, Vol. 23, No. 2, February,
pp. 343-356.
For
the internet:
Author (or organization), date published, “title of article or web page,” web address (you must provide me with enough information that I can find the information for myself).
For example:
Inter-American Development Bank, 2001 (January 1), “Power Sharing,” www.iadb.org/idbamerica/Englist/JAN01E/jan01e7.html.
(Note:
if you cannot identify the author or organization that provided the information
on the internet, then DO NOT USE that information in
your report.)
E.
Spelling and Grammar:
Points will be subtracted from your
grade for bad spelling and grammar. I
suggest that you write your paper using a word processor and use the
"spell-checker."
F.
Length of the Paper:
The paper must be between 10 and 15
double-spaced pages. The margins (top,
bottom, left and right) cannot be more than one inch. The font used must be 12 point or smaller.
G.
Grading:
If your paper fulfills all of the above
requirements, you will receive a minimum grade of approximately 85%. Your grade
will be higher if you cite and use articles from professional journals, and if
your paper is well-written and well-reasoned.
Points will be subtracted from your
grade if you do not fulfill the above requirements. For example: if you do not include a
bibliography, 10 points will be subtracted from your grade; if you do not cite
the sources of the information you use, up to 25 points will be subtracted from
your grade.
If your paper is too short, between 10
and 25 points will be subtracted from your grade. Your paper is too short if you have fewer
than 10 pages, use a larger font than required, or have margins that are larger
than required.
If you do not include all of the
sections described in B, points will be subtracted from you grade. For example, if you do not include a brief
description of the economy and history of the country you are studying, 5
points will be subtracted from you grade.
If you do not include your own opinion and analysis of the policies used
by the government, 10 points will be subtracted from you grade.