Seminar: Pe of Dev in Asia

Have you ever been fascinated by the phenomenal growth rates of Asian countries such as Singapore, Japan and South Korea in the last few decades? Would you like to find out the underlying mechanisms of their success stories? How could less developed countries use the lessons from these cases to catch up with the rest of the world? What are the major development challenges that are particular to Asia and how to overcome them? This course will help you approach the answers to these questions by first equipping you with the theoretical framework and econometric tools that guide your exploration and evaluation of relevant scholarly research. Then, we will examine the development experience of Asia through various case studies with a focus on their political economy aspects. The course will culminate in a major individual research project that you will undertake for a substantial portion of your final grade.