We examine the strategies that different countries have used to maximize their advantages - and minimize their disadvantages - in order to generate economic growth and development. We use economic tools (theoretical and empirical) to structure our analysis.
Much of the first part of the course focuses on strategies to maximize the value of the national stock of human capital, taking the Philippines, Iceland and Singapore as case studies.
The second part of the course examines economic growth in China, India and Japan, particularly looking at the timing and nature of their economic acceleration and the challenges that they face in maintaining their high performance.
The third part of the course focuses on institutions as both consequences of economic growth, and as a source of growth performance. It considers the role of inherited institutions - as in the cases of South Africa and Saudi Arabia - and the failure of formal institutions, in the form of corruption.
The fourth part of the course considers how we can, and perhaps should, measure economic growth, taking into consideration the environment, health and well-being, as well as GDP.