Development Economics
Mid-term coursework
I expect the answers in Moodle by March 20th. This coursework is
worth 100 marks, which represent 20% of your final grade.
1. Use the most recent World Development Report tables to answer question 1.a and
1.b. Note: if your surname starts with a letter between A and G, you should choose
examples from Latin America and/or Africa; if your surname starts with a letter
between H and O, you should choose examples from Africa and/or Asia; finally if
your surname starts with a letter between P and Z, you should choose examples
from Asia and/or Latin America. In ALL cases, you can NOT pick the examples cited in
the lecture notes. (40 marks)
a. Imagine you agree with the following statement: “The per-head value of final
goods and services produced by the people of a country over a given year is a
good predictor of human development”. Show two examples (=two
countries) to back up this statement. You should comment on at least 3
indicators per country. (15 marks)
b. Now imagine instead you need to argue in favour of the following statement:
“Economists should define Development differently, as income doesn’t play
such an important role”. Again, show two examples (=two countries) and
comment on at least 3 indicators per country. (15 marks)
c. Look for Gini coefficients of two (not the four) of the countries cited in
questions 1.a and 1.b. over the period 2000-2012. What conclusion can you
draw? What are the limits of this indicator? (10 marks).
2. The country of Enekwaletee is composed by only 4 individuals, with only 3 of them
having an income of 100$, 400$ and 1500$. Construct an example to show that the
corresponding Gini coefficient satisfies the Dalton Principle. essay代写(30 marks)
3. Lewis (1954) constructed a model to explain the development process with two
sectors (one modern, one traditional). In this model, the overall development
process of a country can be seen as the rise of the modern sector at the expense of
the traditional sector. What assumptions did Lewis make about the traditional
sector? How did he conceive the development process of a country? You can back up
your discussion with graphs. You should of course comment each graph and link
them with your written statement. (30 marks).