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African
Economic Development
Economics 134 Fall 2004 MWF 1:00-2:05 Course Syllabus Michael
Kevane Purpose of the course: Sub-Saharan Africa is currently undergoing a crisis of almost unimaginable magnitude. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in civil conflicts in Rwanda, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Zaire, and Sudan. Most of the population now has lower income than 25 years ago. International attention to conflict and poverty in Africa, however, has been lacking. One reason for this mismatch is a perception, on the part of the public and policymakers, that ‘Africa' is something mysteriously complex, perhaps even dangerous to know. The objective of this course is to correct that view, by making intelligible some of the real, understandable economic problems facing African countries and peoples. The course will emphasize that these problems are complex, even daunting, but not necessary. That is, there is nothing special about Sub-Saharan Africa, nothing that we [in the West] cannot recognize in ourselves if we look into the mirror closely enough. Group project
1 (12 points): For the first three weeks of the course, you will work
in a group of three persons to review the coding of postage stamps issued
by the countries we are discussing. The purpose of this exercise (an actual
research project) is to see whether the efforts to ‘build a nation'
by various African countries are important in enabling economic growth.
You will go through each postage stamp on the handout, and determine whether
the image has been reasonably categorized. As you go through the stamps,
you should be noting whether any overall patterns of images appear, based
on the knowledge of the country that you have (read the CIA World Factbook
for brief overviews). For each country, your group is expected to turn
in the list of stamps with mis-categorized stamps highlighted with a yellow
highlighter, and new categories noted, and a short paragraph noting your
observations about the national image projected by the stamps. Each group
meeting should take about an hour to two hours if you are efficient Midterm: October 25, 30 points Group project
2 (12 points): You will first examine carefully the organizations and
technologies previously nominated for the Tech Museum Awards, Technology
Benefitting Humanity. You will then use Google and other search engines
to find similar kinds of technologies being deployed in African countries.
You will do research on the organization and the technology. Is it novel?
Is it having an impact. You will write a two page summary of the technology
and its impact and why it fits the criteria of the Tech Museum awards.
The papers will then be shared with the other class members, and discussed
in a class session. If we find the technologies worthy of support, we
will nominate them for the award. Final: Dec 8, 46 points. The final will cover the material from October 11 lecture onwards
1. Sep 20 Course overview Country profiles: Introduction to the political-economy issues of the continent. We will begin our study of African economies by looking at four case studies, reading background material that will help us put more general analyses in proper context. 2. Sep 22
Sudan and Burkina - dry economics analysis 3. Sep 24
Sudan - some of the real story 4. Sep 27
Burkina - a very complex past and present 5. Sep 29
Botswana - the continent's success story. What is the secret? 6. Oct 1
Rwanda - overview of the genocide 7. Oct 4
Rwanda - micro-economics underneath the genocide 8. Oct 6 No class - planning day 9. Oct 8 What have we learned? Discussion and reflection Macro and Growth Perspectives: A large literature by economists tries to explain African economic performance in comparative perspective. The method used here is cross-country growth regressions, and is a wonderful example of the importance, and shortcomings, of statistical analysis. 10. Oct 11
Cross-country perspective on economic growth 11. Oct 13 Cross-country perspective on economic growth 12. Oct 15 Film Ali Mazrui 13. Oct 18
Cross-country perspective on economic growth 14. Oct 20
Consolidating ideas about growth 15. Oct 22
Poverty in Africa 16. Oct 25 Midterm 17. Oct 27 Visiting lecture "Gains and Challenges in the New South Africa" Eddie Daniels, a South African political activist, imprisoned with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island.His autobiography, There and Back: Robben Island, 1964-1979 was published in 1998. A new edition is currently being released. "Coloured" according to South African racial classification, i.e. of mixed descent, he was a member of Liberal Party of South Africa (LPSA) before becoming a founding member of the African Resistance Movement (ARM). Banned for five years in 1963, he was arrested and detained for 92 days in 1964 before being sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment. After his release in 1979, he was banned and placed under house arrest for another five years. He married a white woman in 1983, well before the dismantling of the Mixed Marriages Act. Life after Robben Island has included working as a high school teacher until 1993 when he retired. As is the case with so many of the heroes of the struggle in South Africa, an ordinary life (he had been a messenger, factory worker, whalerman, etc.) became an extraordinary one. He is currently a member of the ANC (African National Congress). 18. Oct 29 Discussion of midterm and Tech award nominations Selected topics in African economic development: For the last third of the class we will cover a variety of important issues for the continent, including AIDS, global warming, witchkilling, and how trade agreements might help economic development. 19. Nov 1
Global warming: methods and African impacts 20. Nov 3
Climate change 21. Nov 5
Child Labor in Africa 22. Nov 8
AIDS 23. Nov 10
AIDS 24. Nov 12
Film 25. Nov 15
Witchkilling 26. Nov 17
Film 27. Nov 19
Poverty and peasant communities 28. Nov 29
Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) 29. Dec 1
AGOA and trade 30. Dec 3 TBA 31. Dec 8 9:10-12:10 Final exam |
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