Economic development: survey of course outlines in North American universities

American Economist, Spring, 2002 by Tadiboyina Venkateswarlu

The survey is undertaken in response to feedback received from readers on earlier surveys conducted by the author in different areas of economics. The present survey of economic development intends to enhance the quality of teaching and will enable instructors to update their reading lists. Students might find the information valuable in completing term projects and assignments. Publishers might utilize the data, especially Arabic numerals in parentheses to arrive at decisions with regard to reprinting of edited volumes, journal articles and monographs. Librarians might use the information from the survey to develop a balanced collection, which is important in the light of budget cuts and rapid inflation in books, journals, and microform prices. To fulfill these objectives, a questionnaire is designed and directed at heads of economics departments requesting information pertaining to course objectives and/or content, readings assigned, prerequisites before enrolling in given courses, methods of grading and r ecent shifts of emphasis to new areas of teaching in the past ten years. The questionnaire asking for information was sent to a sample of 97 American universities and to all Canadian universities.

The reference works at libraries in selecting the sample of North American universities where the programs in economic development at undergraduate and graduate levels is considered to be strong, consist of:

1. The World of learning, by Europa Publications, 49th ed., 1999.

2. Guide to graduate study in economics, agricultural economics and related fields: United States of America and Canada, 5th ed., edited by W.F. Owen, 1979.

3. American Universities and Colleges, edited by American Council on Education, 15th ed., 1997.

4. Peterson's guide to graduate programs in the humanities and social sciences, 32nd ed., 1999.

Forty-six (46) universities responded by providing information which shed light on books and journal articles assigned to students, objectives and scope of the courses, prerequisites, grading and some comments on recent trends in teaching. The information on new areas of emphasis in the past ten years has been supplemented by literature search and interviews with senior faculty members teaching the economics of development. The information collected from reading lists is analyzed, compared and tabulated in the form of a bibliography. Incomplete details and typographical errors of assigned readings have been corrected by checking and comparing them with original sources at academic libraries.

A total of (91) books and (372) journal articles were selected from course outlines. Books which were assigned as texts (51) were separated and listed alphabetically by last name of the author under the heading titled "Core Texts." Additional references and/or supplementary monographs were merged with journal articles and arranged alphabetically by last name of the author or by corporate body when there is no author under broad subject headings. Space constraints prompted to condense the survey results without distorting its quality. (1) Monographs and journal articles used by two or more universities were indexed under the classified subject headings listed below:

1. Core texts.

2. Definitions, concepts and measurement

3. Economic growth and models.

4. Income distribution and poverty

5. International trade.

6. Fiscal policy, public debt and foreign aid.

7. Markets and financial policies

8. Human resources.

9. Role of the government.

To identify highly used titles by both American and Canadian universities and to prevent duplication from indexing of entries, the symbols listed below are used in parentheses:

(au) American universities

(cu) Canadian universities

An Arabic numeral preceded by these symbols indicates the number of universities which used the title, e.g., (au2) indicates that two American universities are using the title. If a title does not have a symbol together with a numeral in parentheses, this indicates that it is used by one university only.

There was some uniformity in course outlines examined. The literature search in academic libraries, interviews with senior faculty and analysis of reading lists led to the following overview:

Regarding the objectives and course content, it was offered as two semester course by the institutions responded to the survey. The objectives of the course pertained to expose students to an examination of aggregate topics like economic growth and development theories and their measurement, and a thorough understanding of real world development issues and policies, e.g., why some countries develop faster and others lag behind? why standard of living vary so widely in the world? what variables cause for economies to grow?. Students were expected to be in a position by the end of the course to evaluate the economic policies of developing countries and to offer alternate solutions for faster economic development. To fulfill these objectives, the course was organized to include topics such as, theoretical issues of economic growth and development in the first semester or in the first part of the course, followed by an empirical review of dimensions of the problems of development in developing nations. The major thrust of the course was focused on definition of concepts, examination of policy issues like income distribution and poverty; land, labour and capital in economic development, education, health, and unemployment, fiscal policy and public debt, foreign aid and trade issues, and the role of the public sector.