Economics of Rural Development

Enseignants

Van den Broeck Goedele;

Langue
d'enseignement

Anglais
> Facilités pour suivre le cours en français

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

Students learn more about the processes of rural development and the economics behind it with a particular focus on the Global South. Five topics are covered:
1) Introduction of different concepts of development, distinguishing between monetary and non-monetary based indicators
2) The role of agricultural transformation in rural development, highlighting how development thinking and policies have changed over time
3) Decisions that farm-households take and how market imperfections influence these decisions
4) Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in poor, rural areas
5) Food and nutrition security, and the link with agricultural transformation
The students are first introduced to the theoretical concepts through lectures. Each lecture is followed by a discussion on a related paper that students need to read beforehand and prepare one question about it. Students learn to debate based on their own questions and learn to reason about their answers in an interactive way. 

Méthodes d'enseignement

Classes, directed reading, oriented questions and answers, debate

Modes d'évaluation
des acquis des étudiants

Essay (75% of overall grade)
Participation during the year based on submitted questions for the paper discussions (25% of overall grade)

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 

Support de cours

• Slides on moodle
• Additional background material (articles, policy reports)

Faculté ou entité
en charge

AGRO