Seminar/ workshop materials in Development Economics

Global Climate Change Mitigation Game

James Copestake (University of Bath)

This classroom game highlights key challenges facing international climate change negotiations. It combines standard public good and trust games, and gives them an ultimatum twist. Initial piloting was conducted as part of an intermediate undergraduate development economics course, and on a final year course in development finance. The game is a fun way to illustrate the incentive for countries to free-ride but goes beyond a simple prisoner’s dilemma by allowing for multiple rounds and the effects of uncertainty, not least arising from rushed negotiation processes.

Dimensions of development

Peter Smith (University of Southampton)

Many students embarking on a development economics modules have only a hazy notion of what is meant by "development" or about the characteristics of less developed countries.  This interactive session is designed to get students thinking about these key issues. 
If you want to use this, here is the grid that can be used during the session.

Economics of scarcity and choice

Andy Thorpe (University of Portsmouth)

A seminar session in which groups of students represent an NGO and must choose which of a range of alternative projects are worthy of support.

Overseas aid: an interactive workshop session

Peter Smith (University of Southampton)

"Aid in the dragon's den" 
Briefing papers for groups 
PowerPoint intro and narration (MP4 file)

Population health: a topic for debate

Jolene Skordis-Worrall (University College London)

A seminar session in which students are presented with a topic for debate centred around convergence in life expectancy.

Global Health Institutions

Jolene Skordis-Worrall (University College London)

A discussion-based session in which students are assigned to represent one of four stakeholder groups in the context of a crisis in Mozambique.

Population and Development: plan for a discussion session

Peter Smith (University of Southampton)

A seminar session to encourage students to think about population growth and its effects on development. Students are guided to think about whether market failure arguments can justify intervention to influence parents' decisions about child-bearing.

Students are asked to watch a brief PowerPoint introduction with narration before the session, and are provided with a handout when they arrive. A further presentation can be used in the session in conjunction with a bench PC/ smartboard.

The informal sector: plan for a discussion session

Jackie Wahba and Peter Smith (University of Southampton)

This seminar session is designed to encourage students to think about the nature of the informal sector that is so important in many less developed countries.

Lectures have introduced issues concerned with labour markets in LDCs, but the discussion of the informal sector is left to the seminar. Students are asked to watch a brief PowerPoint introduction (MP4 file) before the session, and are provided with a handout at the beginning of the seminar.  A further presentation can be used in the session in conjunction with a bench PC/smartboard.

Discussion questions

David Potts (University of Bradford)

Discussion questions from a second-year module 
Discussion 1: Identifying the most and least developed countries from a dataset 
Discussion 2: Harrod-Domar data investigation 
Data retrieval exercise with spreadsheet for students