Economics of Rural Development

Enseignants

Gaspart Frédéric (coordinateur(trice)); Van den Broeck Goedele;

Langue
d'enseignement

Anglais

Préalables

General skills for a bio-engineering bachelor, micro-economics (e.g., LBIR1242 Principes d'économie) and introduction to game theory (e.g., LBIRA2104 Decision tools).

Thèmes abordés

Determinants that hamper or promote rural development are analyzed in their context. Some peculiarities of rural development lead to the identification of a list of missing markets. To fulfil the social functions that are thus left unattended, rural communities set up institutional solutions to problems of insurance, credit, labour exchange and land tenure. A particular attention is devoted to the transition from a subsistence economy to a market-oriented economy with a focus on the structural adjustment of the agro-food sector: transfer of the agricultural surplus, investment in productivity and market, technological and institutional innovations, gains from international trade. Poverty and food insecurity are both issues that are analysed transversally through these topics.

Acquis
d'apprentissage

A la fin de cette unité d’enseignement, l’étudiant est capable de :
1	With respect to the learning outcomes of the Bio-engineering in agricultural sciences, this course contributes to the following main learning outcomes: 1.1 - 1.5, 2.1 - 2.5: Industrial organisation, agricultural transformation, structural adjustment (theory and empirics) 3.1 - 3.4, 3.6 - 3.8: Matching real situations with archetypal problems, solving models and interpreting the abstract results 4.1 - 4.2: Identifying typical problems in complex situations 4.4 - 4.7: Drawing lessons from abstract models for complex, real situations 7.1 -7.5: Development policy in a context of poverty and inequality By the end of the course, students are able to: -       master economic theory on the development of the agricultural sector, -       analyze the transitions from a subsistence economy into a market-oriented economy, -       understand the opportunities and the limits of the contributions of the development of the agro-food sector to economic development as a whole, -       understand technological and institutional innovations to foster the development of the agro-food sector, -       understand opportunities and limits of policy instruments in favour of rural development, understand specific obstacles to rural development rural and their traditional, institutional solutions through economic models (game theory, political economics, partial and general equilibrium models).

Contenu

Part 1 : Students are exposed to the broad visions that have been framing the contemporary policies for the role of agriculture in structural transformation and rural development, with an historical and theoretical structure. Structural adjustment, the Commodity Boom and the so-called Great Recession (2007-2012) are described and analyzed critically, along with the underlying conceptions of economic development and the role attributed to the rural sectors in the development process. Students will write an essay on a question defined by the teacher.
Part 2 : Students read a book or selected chapters of a book chosen by the teachers. Following a guidance sheet, they compile an operational summary of the book and raise two questions about the arguments put forward by the author (the type of relevant question is defined in the guidance sheet). Furthermore, with the occasional help of the teachers, each student must suggest an informed tentative answer to her own questions. The questions and answers are sent to the teachers before a debate organized at the end of the semester ; questions raised by the students are confronted and answered during the debate.

Méthodes d'enseignement

Classes, directed reading, oriented questions and answers, debate

Modes d'évaluation
des acquis des étudiants

Part 1 : Essay
Part 2 : Preparatory report, quality of participation during the debate.

Autres infos

The course will be taught in English. Students are expected to participate in an English-spoken debate.

Ressources
en ligne

Moodle

Bibliographie

Variable ; e.g. Paul Collier « The Bottom Billion » (various editions).

Faculté ou entité
en charge

AGRO