Trade, Development and the Asia Pacific Economy

This course provides necessary inputs to understand the sources of economic growth, international trade, and globalization mainly from the policy perspective of developing countries in the Asia Pacific region. It is more of a policy-analysis course than a pure theoretical course. Drawing on the most relevant theories, this course will answer important development questions of “How do some countries grow faster than others? What are the sources of growth? What is the role of international trade in the growth process of a country? Why do governments in developing countries follow the so called restrictive trade policies? Has globalization contributed to reduction in poverty across developing countries? Can Official Development Assistance be used for climate change mitigation and adaptation?” The course will discuss in details some of the important analytical methodologies that are followed in the literature to answer the above questions empirically. Though lecture notes in the form of power point presentations are given, students need to read the papers included in the reading brick along with the readings suggested below. Further readings may be given. Students’ will be asked to form a group of 3 students to work collectively on a research topic agreed by the lecturer. Each group needs to collectively make a presentation in the class and needs to submit a final version of their research at the end of the course.