Economics: Economics and Economy of Developing World

Who may need this course?

1. Graduate students in Economics or Political Economy

2. Students planning to work as teacher or government officials in organizations dealing with economic issues in developing world

3. M. Phil/Ph.D. students looking for new ideas for research or thesis in Economics Theory and Policy

4. University Teachers interested to know Economics in Developing economy perspective

5. All such officials who are busy in government jobs in economic development matters or those who are serving international organization development organizations like World Bank, ADB, IsDB, IFDB and others and who do not have time to attend the classes

This course is primarily meant for the graduate students in the faculty of Economics, Business, Finance or Management. This will help them not only to understand relevance of Principles of Economics as explained in currently popular text books but will also allow them to interact with the teachers in discussing practical economic problems they find in their economies.

Though this course is only on Principles of Economics yet it will be most beneficial for the Master’s, M. Phil and PhD students to find new ideas for their thesis or writing research articles relating to economic issues in developing countries.

This course will educate students and teachers of developing world to learn Economics beyond what they learn from current popular textbooks like Samuelson and Nordhaus Economics, or Mankiw Principles of Economics. Economy in developing world is different from the economy as it is described in the popular textbooks.

Current knowledge of Economics is not sufficient to let World achieve its claim to end poverty, promote shared prosperity and to increase welfare of the bottom 40 percent of society wherever they are, be it the poorest of nations or thriving middle-or-high income countries (World Bank Group strategy). There is need to search institutional requirements to achieve this paradigm by building institutions beyond markets.

Also, Corona virus has now proved in a cruel way that economy cannot and should not be understood in merely through institutions for markets. Economic exists beyond market also and needs to be understood properly so that it could be utilized to balance the policies between protecting economy and protecting critical public needs when Corona type calamities may occur nationally or globally.

There is evidence that economy exists in that part of economy also where market cannot work. But this part is as important for economy as it is for Market economy when it is a matter of developing economies of developing world. Whereas market makes the economy grow only in terms of national Income, the economy beyond market economy is equally important to make human resources to complement Market economy in making the entire economy grow in a sustainable way (as required by UN) with prosperity shared as desired by World Bank.

That economy grows in this way is a wish of every one in every economy. This is a wish of humanity which cannot be denied. World Bank is now recognizing such need of humanity and is focusing on understanding strategies to end extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity by increasing the incomes and welfare of the bottom 40 percent of society wherever they are, be it the poorest of nations or thriving middle- or high-income countries.

And UN, after hesitantly accepting Mahbub ul Haq’s Human Development Index, is now convinced that humanity needs much more than that. UN is now committed to attain for humanity a sustainable development that would meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

These UN and World Bank goals relate to resources that market economies create all over the world. Economics has yet to understand and explain how the flow of these resource can be channelized to move in the direction of these goals. If Economics keeps the world focusing on creation of wealth in terms of production of goods and services with Full Employment in Labor Market only, then sure, Economics is not for humanity but only for wealth creation. There is definitely a need to rethink Economics to make it a science to serve humanity.

This course therefore becomes important for everyone who has an interest in knowing why globally growing economic prosperity is benefiting only a few but is failing to let it shared by everyone.

This course is important even for undergraduate students who wants to take Economics as their profession. They should know Economics from very beginning with open mind. Making mind closed to what they learn from textbook in their first course on Economics can become a curse for the entire life not allowing the students to think anything beyond what they learn in first course.

Course Outline

            Introduction

Part I

Basics of Economics

Understanding some basic concepts in Economics

Economics of Market Economy

Market Economy and Beyond Market Economy

Institutional Set up for Market Economy

Institutional Set up for Economy Beyond Market

Part 2

How Economy Economy Works

Macroeconomic Framework

Macroeconomics

Part 3

Microeconomics

A. Production Function and Factor Markets

Rethinking, Production Function and Factors of Production

Rethinking Labor and Capital as a Factor of Production

Entrepreneurship and Market of entrepreneurs

B. Consumption and Goods Market

Consumer Behavior

Market of Goods and Services and Market Failures

C. Loans and Investments

Time Value of Money

Money and Banking and Money Market

Investment Decisions

Futures and Futures Market

Part 4

Political Economy

Economy and Economics Laws

Economic Planning and Economic Policies

Reading List

Mahbub ul Haq, The Poverty Curtain: Choices of Third World, 1976

Gregory Mankiw, Principles of Economics, 8th Edition

Paul Samuelson and William Nordhaus, Economics, 19th Edition

Thomas Pikkety, Capital in Twenty First Century, 2014

Required Reading before start

Mahbub ul Haq, The Poverty Curtain

Reading Pp 1-76 and observing the data and their sources in the Appendix

Compulsory reading during the course

Any book that is in the list in the first course on Economics at university level in any country or in any university of their choice. Students, however, are strongly recommended to use  Samuelson and Nordhaus Economics 19th edition, if access is available. Mankiw Principles of Economics 8th edition can also be use

The instructors however will be referring mostly to Samuelson and Nordhaus (to be called S&N) 19th edition. S&N Economics is strongly recommended for those students who want to advance their knowledge in more depth for research or policy making because S&N identifies the issues that the textbooks don’t cover, particularly the issues relating economics in developed economies.

Optional after the course ends

Pikkety, Capital in 21st Century

Khan, Economics and Economy of Developing World to be published after this course