Undergraduate - UnitECC3670 - Economics of developing countries

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Business and Economics
Organisational Unit	Department of Economics
Offered	Clayton First semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Professor Ranjan Ray

Synopsis

This unit provides an analytical framework for studying economic problems of developing countries. We will examine how standard economic theories apply in the presence of market failures and weak formal institutions that characterise developing countries. The key focus is on general problems facing developing countries rather than any specific country or region. It examines specific issues and policy problems that are currently faced by developing nations, including issues such as inequality, poverty, population growth, rural-urban migration, human capital accumulation, gender bias, markets in developing countries, credit constraints and risk and insurance.

Outcomes

The learning goals associated with this unit are to:

apply basic microeconomic principles and analytical tools to understand, interpret and assess the transport sector and government transport policies
appreciate the special characteristics of the transport sector and the operation of transport markets
recognise the presence and influence of economies of scale and scope, joint costs, price discrimination, peak and off-peak pricing and factors which shape the derived nature of transport demand and the inner-relationships between transport markets and other markets, including land markets.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 30%
Examination: 70%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. Independent study may include associated readings, assessment and preparation for scheduled activities. The unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Professor Ranjan Ray

Prerequisites

ECC2000 or ECC5900 or ECX9000

Prohibitions

ECC4367