22-40.110 Interdisciplinary Seminar in Politics and Economics: Development Economics

Lehrende: Dr. Cornelia Franziska Stefanie Müller; Prof. Dr. Thomas Straubhaar

Veranstaltungsart: Seminar

Anzeige im Stundenplan: 22-4.sem2

Semesterwochenstunden: 2

Unterrichtssprache: Englisch

Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl: - | 18

Kommentare/ Inhalte:
The seminar will be held over Zoom calls and all relavant information will be posted in STiNE.

In the Interdisciplinary Seminar “Development Economics” we will investigate political and economic issues related with developing processes.

What role do different factors play by convergence or divergence patterns within and between countries? Could or should politics intervene and if yes, in what regards and with what kind of instruments? What could economics contribute to the understanding of development processes? We will examine the options, challenges, benefits and possible harms of different concepts of development (policies). We aim to answer questions of development patterns with the particular role of politics (i.e. governments, laws and rules), economics (incentives, behaviour but also vested interest groups) and also (but only in marginal dimensions) philosophy (morality and justification) in mind. We will familiarize ourselves with classical and contemporary debates on development economics / development theory, covering modernisation theory, dependence theory, the (Post)Washington Consensus, green growth, blended finance & financialization, subalternity & empowerment.

Lernziel:
This is a research seminar. The goal is to motivate and train students in research. Students are expected to hone and improve their analytical as well as their writing skills. You will be expected to independently write a scientific paper. Furthermore, students will be expected to present their paper to the group, thus receiving invaluable feedback while also being prompted to respond to critiques and address suggestions from the group. Research papers are due at the end of the seminar, after presentation and revision. The paper will be graded (i.e. the final mark is determined exclusively by the final version of the seminar paper).

Vorgehen:
Students are supposed to propose a topic of their own choice that fits into one of the following domains:

• Development as an economic and political concept (Convergence versus Divergence)
  
• Measurement and Indicators of Development and Inequality (how to overcome deficiencies?)
  
• Aid and Development (Does it help or harm?)
  
• Green economy and Green growth (How do green goals and development norms go together? Is this always a win-win solution? How to address potential distortions?)
  
• Finance architectures (How does blended finance contribute to greater development effectiveness? Which new dependencies and distortions can we detect?)