This course seeks to introduce students to the micro-economic dimensions of development issues facing India. Starting with a historical review and an evaluation of the impact of colonial policy, the course then goes on to explore several key areas of current development policy in the country: financial markets, the universalization of education, provision of health services, and the creation of a social security net for the poorest. The focus is largely on rural areas, where the vast majority of India’s population lives and where deprivation can often be the sharpest. Instruction is both in-class and through guided observation in the field. Through these avenues, this course hopes to pique students’ interest in understanding how economic principles interplay with social forces to shape the Indian development experience.
Prerequisites:
There are no prerequisites for this course. A course in the principles of Economics will be useful but is not compulsory.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course, students are able to:
Understand the difference between economic development and human development, and illustrate this in the context of the recent progress of different provinces of India.
Identify the historical factors that have shaped post-Independence Indian economic policy.
Analyze the determinants as well as the economic impact of British colonial policy in India.
Understand how rural markets work very differently from markets in developed countries
Understand how microfinance works in India and discuss its role in the rural society and economy
Analyze the initiatives undertaken by the Indian government to provide basic schooling and health facilities, especially for the poor.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the Employment Guarantee Act as a social security net for the poor, and its role in improving rural infrastructure.
Analyze and synthesize in depth at least one development issue related to the poor, relying on direct field observations complemented by a study of secondary sources.
Method of presentation:
There are two class meetings per week. In addition there are several weekend village excursions as well as field visits within Delhi. Class time will often include discussions led by students. For this, a group of two students will be asked to present assigned readings with inputs from other sources. Presenters will be graded on their work.
Required work and form of assessment:
The final grade is based on the following assignments: Take-home assignments (40%), Research project (40%), Two class presentations (20%).
There is a short take-home assignment after each principal section of the course; the assignments together make up 40% of the course grade. During the semester, students pair up with one other student and undertake a research project on one of the areas covered by the course. Students’ projects utilize observations from field visits and/or independent visits. At the end of the semester, students present on their projects and write a project report. The two together contribute 40% of the final grade. In addition, two class presentations during the semester are worth 10% each.
All clauses of IES Abroad Delhi’s attendance policy will be strictly adhered to. Please refer to your Student Handbook. In addition, students are required to keep electronic equipment like cellphones, portable audio, etc. switched off while in class. Use of laptops is permitted, but only for purposes of note-taking. Any violation of this policy will lead to expulsion from the classroom.
content:
Below is a list of readings for this course. When journal articles are assigned, students will not be required to cover the intricacies of the econometric work or the theoretical model; the emphasis will be on stylised facts and research results. In addition to these readings, others may be recommended from time to time.
The following texts will be referenced below by their respective abbreviations.
JLN Nehru, Jawaharlal (1946), The Discovery of India, New Delhi: Penguin Books.
RAY Ray, Debraj (1998), Development Economics, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
SAI Sainath, P. (1996), Everybody Loves a Good Drought, New Delhi: Penguin Books.
DZS Drèze, Jean and Amartya Sen (2002), India: Development and Participation, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
BBM Banerjee, Abhijit Vinayak, Roland Bénabou and Dilip Mookherjee (eds.) (2006), Understanding Poverty, New York: Oxford University Press.
A) Introduction [6 Lectures]
JLN: Extracts from Chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10.
DZS: Chapters 3 & 4.
Khilnani, Sunil (1997) The Idea of India, London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd. Chapters 1 & 2.
Banerjee, Abhijit and Esther Duflo (2006), The Economic Lives of the Poor,
MIT Dept of Economics Working Paper 06-29.
B) Reading Regression Tables [1 Lecture]
Lecture notes.
C) The Role of Colonial Institutions [3 Lectures]
BBM: Chapter 2.
Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson (2001), The Colonial Origins of Comparative Economic Development, The American Economic Review, 91(5), December.
Iyer, Lakshmi (2007), Direct versus Indirect Colonial Rule in India: Long term Consequences, Harvard Business School Working Paper, July.
Banerjee, Abhijit and Lakshmi Iyer (2005), History, Institutions and Economic Performance: The Legacy of Colonial Land Tenure Systems in India, The American Economic Review, 95(4).
Government of India (2006), Some Aspects of Operational Land Holdings in India, 2002-03, NSS Report No. 492 (59/18.1/3)
Government of India (1996), Operational Land Holdings in India, 1991-92: Salient Features, NSS Report No. 407.
BBM: Chapters 22, 23 and 26.
Shah, Mihir, Rangu Rao and P S Vijay Shankar (2007), Rural Credit in 20th Century India: Overview of History and Perspectives, Economic and Political Weekly, April 14.
SAI: “Lenders, Losers, Crooks and Credit”, pp. 193-230.
Ghate, Prabhu et al (2008), Microfinance in India: A State of the Sector Report, 2007, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Chakrabarti, Rajesh (2005), “The Indian Microfinance Experience – Accomplishments and Challenges.” Available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=649854
Kumar, Pankaj and Ramesh Golait (2009), “Bank Penetration and SHG-Bank Linkage Programme: A Critique,” Reserve Bank of India Occasional Papers, vol. 29, no. 3.
Lecture notes by Asmita Kabra.
F) Rural excursion to Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh
G) Education [4 lectures + 1 field visit]
DZS: Chapter 5.
SAI: “This is the Way We Go to School”, pp. 45-68.
De, Anuradha, Jean Drèze, et al. (1999), Public Report on Basic Education, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, excerpts.
Drèze, Jean and Geeta Gandhi Kingdon (2001), School Participation in Rural India, Review of Development Economics, 5(1).
Khera, Reetika (2006), Mid-Day Meals in Primary Schools: Achievements and Challenges, Economic and Political Weekly, November 18, pp. 4742-4750.
Banerjee, Abhijit and Esther Duflo (2005), Addressing Absence, mimeo.
Kingdon, Geeta Gandhi (2007), The Progress of School Education in India, Economic & Social Research Council Working Paper GPRG-WPS-071, March.
The World Bank (2003), Secondary Education in India, Report No. 2, November.
Field visit to schools in Delhi
H) Rural excursion to Khurja
I) Excursion to Sulabh Toilet Museum
J) Health, Nutrition and Environment [4 Lectures + 1 field visit]
DZS: Chapters 6 and 7.
SAI: “The Trickle Up and Down Theory”, pp. 21-44.
Das, Jishnu and Jeffrey Hammer (2007), Money for nothing: The dire straits of medical practice in Delhi, India, Journal of Development Economics, 83, pp. 1-36.
Deaton, Angus and Jean Dréze (2008), Nutrition in India: Facts and Interpretations, working paper.
Mayer, P. (1999), India’s Falling Sex Ratios, Population and Development Review, 25(2), p. 323-343.
Joshi, N. V., Madhav Gadgil and Suresh Patil (1996), Correlates of the Desired Family Size among Indian Communities, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), 93, pp. 6387-6392, June.
Basu, Alaka M. (1990), Cultural Influences on Child Health in a Delhi Slum: In What Way is Urban
Poverty Preferable to Rural Poverty? in ‘What we Know About Health Transition: The Cultural, Social and Behavioral Determinants of Health,’ ed. John Caldwell et al, Australian National University: Chapter 30.
Jalan, Jyotsna and E. Somanathan (2008), Experimental Evidence on the Demand for Environmental Quality, Journal of Development Economics, 87(1), pp. 14-28.
Field visit to health facilities in Delhi
K) Rural excursion to Rajasthan
L) The Employment Guarantee Act [3 lectures]
Government of India (2008), NREGA Operational Guidelines: 2008, ed. 3, New Delhi: Ministry of Rural Development.
Khera, R. (2008), Empowerment Guarantee Act, Economic and Political Weekly, August 30, pp. 8-10.
Afridi, Farzana (2008), Can Community Monitoring Improve the Accountability of Public Officials?, Economic and Political Weekly, October 18, pp. 35-40.
Khera, Reetika and Nandini Nayak (2009), Women Workers and Perceptions of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Economic and Political Weekly, October 24, pp. 49-57.
Lecture notes from presentation by Reetika Khera.
M) Project Presentations [3 lectures]
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Hemanshu Kumar has taught graduate courses in Microeconomics, Statistics and Econometrics at the Delhi School of Economics, as well as several undergraduate courses at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL). His research interests lie in the field of Development Economics, and he is particularly interested in the interaction between the caste system and socio-economic outcomes such as education and occupational structure. Kumar earned Masters degrees in Economics from Northwestern University as well as from the Delhi School of Economics, where he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the subject.
This course seeks to introduce students to the micro-economic dimensions of development issues facing India. Starting with a historical review and an evaluation of the impact of colonial policy, the course then goes on to explore several key areas of current development policy in the country: financial markets, the universalization of education, provision of health services, and the creation of a social security net for the poorest. The focus is largely on rural areas, where the vast majority of India’s population lives and where deprivation can often be the sharpest. Instruction is both in-class and through guided observation in the field. Through these avenues, this course hopes to pique students’ interest in understanding how economic principles interplay with social forces to shape the Indian development experience.
There are no prerequisites for this course. A course in the principles of Economics will be useful but is not compulsory.
By the end of the course, students are able to:
There are two class meetings per week. In addition there are several weekend village excursions as well as field visits within Delhi. Class time will often include discussions led by students. For this, a group of two students will be asked to present assigned readings with inputs from other sources. Presenters will be graded on their work.
The final grade is based on the following assignments: Take-home assignments (40%), Research project (40%), Two class presentations (20%).
There is a short take-home assignment after each principal section of the course; the assignments together make up 40% of the course grade. During the semester, students pair up with one other student and undertake a research project on one of the areas covered by the course. Students’ projects utilize observations from field visits and/or independent visits. At the end of the semester, students present on their projects and write a project report. The two together contribute 40% of the final grade. In addition, two class presentations during the semester are worth 10% each.
All clauses of IES Abroad Delhi’s attendance policy will be strictly adhered to. Please refer to your Student Handbook. In addition, students are required to keep electronic equipment like cellphones, portable audio, etc. switched off while in class. Use of laptops is permitted, but only for purposes of note-taking. Any violation of this policy will lead to expulsion from the classroom.
Below is a list of readings for this course. When journal articles are assigned, students will not be required to cover the intricacies of the econometric work or the theoretical model; the emphasis will be on stylised facts and research results. In addition to these readings, others may be recommended from time to time.
The following texts will be referenced below by their respective abbreviations.
A) Introduction [6 Lectures]
B) Reading Regression Tables [1 Lecture]
C) The Role of Colonial Institutions [3 Lectures]
D) Introduction to Project Areas: Microfinance, Education, Health, NREGA [1 lecture]
E) Rural Land and Credit Markets [5 lectures]
F) Rural excursion to Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh
G) Education [4 lectures + 1 field visit]
Field visit to schools in Delhi
H) Rural excursion to Khurja
I) Excursion to Sulabh Toilet Museum
J) Health, Nutrition and Environment [4 Lectures + 1 field visit]
Field visit to health facilities in Delhi
K) Rural excursion to Rajasthan
L) The Employment Guarantee Act [3 lectures]
M) Project Presentations [3 lectures]
Hemanshu Kumar has taught graduate courses in Microeconomics, Statistics and Econometrics at the Delhi School of Economics, as well as several undergraduate courses at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL). His research interests lie in the field of Development Economics, and he is particularly interested in the interaction between the caste system and socio-economic outcomes such as education and occupational structure. Kumar earned Masters degrees in Economics from Northwestern University as well as from the Delhi School of Economics, where he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the subject.