EC140 Economic Development

Course Learning Objectives

Syllabus

Fall 2021 syllabus

Grading

Capstone 1: Policy Memo

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Learning Objectives

1. Demonstrate understanding of key topics in Unit 1 a. Defining poverty and considering the "economic lives of the poor" b. The role of geography, institutions, and foreign aid in economic growth and the economic well-being of citizens today
2. Comunicate ideas in a concise format through a policy memo

Prompt

Your assignment is to choose a low- or middle income country (as defined by the World Bank) and write a brief policy "briefing" memo directed at a new program analyst at USAID.

The following countries are recommended because profiles of individual families/households are available through one of the sources below: Bangaldesh, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Brazil, Burundi , Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China, Cote d’Ivoire, Colombia, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Iran, Indonesia, India, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Myanmar, Malawi, Mongolia, Mexico, Mozambique, Nigeria, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Romania, Rwanda, Somalia, Switzerland, South Africa, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, Ukraine, Vietnam, Zimbabwe

There are four key elements your memo should include:

1. Economic status: Description of the economic status of the country based on recent data. You should pull this information form a source such as the World Bank, UN Human Development Reports, or other large-scale surveys and data collection efforts (Demographic and Health Surveys, LSMS, etc.). This discussion should include the following factors

   1. Current GDP/capita levels and recent trends
   2. At least two indicators that reflect quality of life and recent trends in them

2. Institutions: Description of key events and/or characteristics of the country that has influenced its economic development (that you described above) and a summary of its political and economic institutions. Make sure your discussion is supported w/ evidence.

   1. You'll need to cite our readings (where relevant) in this section
   2. You will also need to bring in at least 2 external (non-class) sources

3. Foreign aid and effectiveness Summary of aid this country has received and is currently receiving from USAID (and/or other places) and discussion of whether this aid has been effective

   1. Effectiveness can be based on your own impressions, but it should cite other researchers/authors. This could include our class readings, but it also should include at least 2 external sources.

4. Citizen profile: To help our analyst get a sense of the lives of actual citizens of this country, include a "pop-out" box that profiles one individual or one family. This information can be drawn from Gapminder's Dollar Street, Portfolios of the Poor (applicable for Bangladesh, India, South Africa), Kenyan Financial Diaries, BFA Global Financial Diaries (China, India, Mexico, South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda)

Then, include a separate page that has the following:

• Definintions of all terms used (GDP/capita, PPP, HDI, etc.)

  • Make sure it's clear in your terms what they mean exactly. How is poverty rate defined? Is GDP/captia in PPP dollars, US dollars? Based to what year?

• References list

  • Formatted bibliography using APA, MLA, or Chicago.
  • Make sure to include proper citation for any course readings readings and data sources as well as external articles/readings.

Specifications

• 1200-1800 words (excluding references and definitions). You may want to consider bulleted lists, tables, etc. to stay within the word count.

• Descriptive title (ie. not "TONGA BRIEF")

• Spend some time formatting your brief to make it look nice!

• You'll need quite a few outside sources. I expect the following:

  • Data sources for economic profile
  • Academic and non-academic literature for institutions and foreign aid effectiveness
  • Data sources for current aid
  • External source for citizen profile

• When bringing in outside sources, please be concise and avoid large quotation blocks

  • Good: "Botswana's standard of living has enabled the government to invest more in education, a key "engine of economic prosperity" (Acemoglu and Robinson 2009, p77)
  • No: "Inclusive economic instituions pave the way for two other engines of economic prosperity: technology and education." (Acemoglu and Robinson 2009, p77) Instead, link to your own points and pare down
  • No: "In their book, Why Nations Fail, Acemoglu and Robinson (p77) highlight the importance of technology and education as engines of economic prosperity." We don't need the book title, and make the link to what you're saying clearer. While we can state their arguments, it's better to integrate them with our own.
  • No: "Botswana has invested heavily in education, as inclusive economic instituions pave the way for two other engines of economic prosperity: technology and education." Well, now you've plagarised. Even if you include AR in the references!

Deliverables

Rough draft (September 20)

Submit on BB before class by 1:10pm.

During class, you'll peer review each other's drafts.

What counts as "complete enough" for a rough draft:

• Selected an eligible country

• Content in all four key elements

  • Data and indicators in place for part (1)
  • External sources (2+) brought in for key events/characteristics

• Definition of terms

Final draft (September 27)

Submit on BB before class by 1:10pm

We will have a remote activity to work with the drafts.

Grading

10% of your grade is based on your Rough Draft

90% of your grade is based on your Final Draft

Capstone 2: Mini-grant proposal

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Rubric

Learning objectives

The objective of this capstone is to provide an opportunity to connect the in-class topics with real-world challenges, to strengthen your skills in communicating clearly and concisely about an issue, and to develop your abilities in thinking critically about writing and providing constructive feedback.

Prompt

Throughout this class we've discussed a lot of problems facing the world's poor and potential solutions. The Global Innovation Fund provides up to $230,000 in funding for pilot projects that provide "social innovations that aim to improve the lives and opportunities of millions of people in the developing world." Your assignment is to write an adapted mini-grant proposal to GIF. Pick a problem of interest to you, think about one possible "innovation" that is testable, and think about how you would evaluate it in one particular setting (ie country, region within a country, city)

GIF considers four criteria in its funding decisions¹

Target market

• Innovation brings benefits for those who live on the equivalent of $5perday,withextrainterestinsolutionsthataffectthoselivingon$$5 per day, with extra interest in solutions that affect those living on$2 or less per day or other vulnerable or disadvantaged groups

Innovation and impact: Will your intervention meaningfully improve the lives of those living on less than $5 PPP per day?

1. Does your innovation have the potential to deliver substantially greater results per dollar than standard development practice?

2. What is your evidence of impact to back this claim?

   • As these are pilot funds, "We value any relevant evidence or research findings that demonstrate why the innovation is needed, such as evidence of customer demand or interest in the innovation. We do not expect that strong evidence already exists to prove the value of the innovation, but we do need a clear rationale for why the innovation could have a greater impact or be more cost effective than existing approaches."

3. Will your current request substantially strengthen or test your case for impact?

4. Does your innovation test, challenge, or improve on business as usual?

Measuring success and lessons learned: How will you measure your success? Monitoring and evaluation? Impact evaluation? For our class, the correct answer is to conduct an impact evaluation. Provide details (see below).

Potential to scale: If the pilot is successful, how could the model scale and grow?

GIF only funds innovation which have the potential to scale to benefit millions of people. Scaling can take place through in any number of ways– growth of a successful business or uptake by a government partner, for example. The million lives club showcases some of the innovations supported by GIF and others which are either reaching millions of clients or on their way to doing so.

Note that you don't need to propose anything at scale, just discuss how one might do it if your intervention was successful

Format

1. Title of project:

2. One-sentence pitch That's right, just one sentence

3. Application summary

4. Grant proposal, in one of the following forms

   a. 2-4 page proposal (12 point font, single spaced, 1" margins)

OR

b. 8-15 slide deck + video in which you narrate your slides

5. References

Application summary

Provide a 1-2 paragraph summary of your application in the space below, maximum 300 words. Summarize why your approach is innovative and the expected impacts and potential to scale.

Grant proposal

In addition to the application summary, your proposal should have four distinct, labeled sections.

(1) Overview of the innovation you propose: What is it, how does it work?

(2) Innovation and impact: Demonstrate that your project meets the four criteria above

(3) Measuring success and lessons learned: Describe a plan to implement a randomized impact evaluation to evaluate your innovation. It should include the following details:

1. Theory of change: Inputs, Activities, Outputs, Intermediate Outcomes, Final outcomes (a diagram is fine)
2. Sampling frame: who will be in your sample, how will you recruit them
3. Randomization strategy: individual, clustered, explain why
4. Treatment arms: how many arms are there, what does each arm (and control) receive?
5. Outcomes of interest: What are the outcomes you will measure to determine if your intervention is effective?
6. Measurement strategy: How will you measure these outcomes? Surveys, administrative data?

(4) Potential to scale

As a rough guide, I would expect that section 3 would be about twice as long as sections 1 and 2, and that section 4 would be very short.

Written grant proposal

Your document should meet the following criteria:

• Include elements described above
• Be 2–4 pages, single spaced (excluding summary)
• 11 or 12 point reasonable font, 1" margin

In order to make this work, you'll note that you won't have much room for long paragraphs with nice connecting topics sentences. Don't worry about transitions. Use bullet points when appropriate to make your points clearer.

Slide deck grant proposal

Note that you still need to prepare the 300-word application summary if you choose this option!

Your presentation should contain the following:

• Include all elements described above
• Consist of 8–16 slides
• Slide deck should be attractive, easy to read
• You should record a video of yourself narrating your presentation. This is not the same as reading your slides. You can do a screencast via Teams or something fancier. I'm just looking for a video of your slides w/ an audio component
• Because you are narrating, don't try to cram a written proposal into 16 slides. It will look awful and be no fun for you. Use bullet points to touch on key elements, and then talk us through those points in detail
• You don't need to script your narration (though you can) -- but you may want to give yourself a few talking points to ensure it goes smoothly
• The presentation should be 10–15 minutes.

Do I need references?

Yes, and not just for your grade. Depending on your problem/innovation, you will need to consult data sources, reports and/or academic articles for any of these three reasons:

1. To argue why your policy problem matters. It's not sufficient to say that "I believe hunger is a major problem, because when I'm hungry it's hard to do anything." Rather, "Malnutrition kills more than 10 children each year and limits the future of millions more (Yosemite and Buggles 2005)"
2. To argue why your innovation is innovative. While Smith and Patel (2012) have tested the roll-out of microinsurance to protect against flooding in Senegal, no one has considered that microinsurance can also be adapted to help the poor pay costly veterinary bills."
3. To argue why your innovation will work. "Ho and Gutchow (1988) show the promise of inspirational cat posters on children's health and iron levels."

For grading purposes, you must cite at least 3 peer-reviewed academic papers, at least two of which must be non-assigned course readings (bonus pack course readings are fine) .

Documenting your references

Your sources can include readings from class or readings outside of class, but all should be properly documented in a References section at the end of the proposal or your slide deck. The references section does not count toward the page limit or slide deck limit. You can use any standard method of formatting references (APA, MLA, Chicago), but it should be implemented correctly.

Do I need a budget?

No!

However, it can be hard to know what $230k would buy you in terms of an intervention and evaluation (less than you would think, unfortunately 😶 ). And often, governments will provide inputs if your innovation builds upon an existing program they are interested in. For example, if you want to add a component to a conditional cash transfer program, you could assume the cash transfer program is already paid for. In general, think bigger than distributing flyers to 1000 people but smaller than a test of universal basic income for the nation of Kenya.

The biggest costs are usually the interventions themselves (ie you give $100/person,thataddsup!)andstaffingneededforsurveys.Wejustpricedouta1.5hour2400-personsurveyconductedinpersoninfairlyruralareasinthePhilippinesat$$100/person, that adds up!) and staffing needed for surveys. We just priced out a 1.5 hour 2400-person survey conducted in person in fairly rural areas in the Philippines at ~$100k (including all staff costs, transportation, help w/ analysis, etc.).

For this assignment, don't worry about this too much unless you are wildly off (ie could be implemented for < $10kormorethan$$10k or more than$5 million).

I have no ideas!

A few approaches:

1. Topic-centric: Pick a general topic that interests you (education, sanitation, reproductive health), and dive into the Poor Economics chapter -- keep an eye out for the papers that catch your fancy. Or, if you find someone's work you like, visit their research website and see what other stuff they're up to more recently. There are lots of summaries of completed an in-progress projects at IPA's and JPAL's websites, and you can search by topic
2. Recent stuff: Browse VoxDev.org -- it has heaps of quick policy briefs on things people are trying.
3. GIF: Check out what GIF is funding at the moment
4. Dig around for NGOs that work in areas you're interested in. GiveWell has a list of effective charities.

You don't need to revolutionize the world by inventing the next big idea or building a better bed net. But, you can look at what people have tried or are trying and propose an improvement, an expansion, a new context, etc. Since it's a pilot, you don't need to know whether it will work, but you should be able to argue (using evidence) that it probably will make peoples' lives better.

In that vein, you shouldn't take someone's project as is. But, you could think about what addition/change you might make to someone's intervention, whether you could apply it in a different context (If cognitive behavioral therapy helps mothers, could it also help children? Maybe it would lead to better education outcomes?), etc.

Grading

See separate grading rubric. Use it as you work on your proposal.

Note that the rubric will be the same for both methods, with the exception of the "Appearance and style" block. For the written proposal, that will be graded based on producing a proposal that is concise, clear, and has minimal grammatical errors. The recorded video proposal will be graded on the quality of the slides (visually attractive, concise) and of the narration (makes points clearly, easy to follow)

Deliverables

Your assignment will be submitted in three stages. You will be graded on your proposal idea (5%, for completion), draft brief (10%, for completion), and your final brief (85%)

RCT proposal idea

Submit on Blackboard by October 15 (Friday) @ 1:10pm

Prepare a 1–2 paragraph "pitch" of your idea. This is fairly informal, but it should include the following:

• Location of study: Specific country, region within country, etc
• Description of the innovation that you want to test. What is it, is this derived from something else (and if so, what's different about your study vs. previous work)?
• A sentence or two about how you might evaluate it.

RCT proposal draft

Submit on Blackboard by October 29 (Friday) @ 1:10pm, and we will peer review in class

What counts as "complete enough" for a rough draft:

• Content in all four sections of grant proposal (as written document or presentation)

• At least 1 page single spaced

• Theory of change present and filled out

• At least 2 peer-reviewed academic journal articles included (you need 3 for final)

   

RCT proposal final draft

Submit on Blackboard by November 7 (Sunday) @ 11:59pm

Review rubric before submission!

Capstone 3: Policy Brief

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The objectives of this assignment are (1) to provide an opportunity to connect the in-class topics with real-world challenges, (2) to strengthen your skills in writing clearly and concisely about an issue, and (3) to develop your abilities in thinking critically about writing and providing constructive feedback.

You will write a policy brief of 1,000–1,500 words, submitted in three stages:

1. Idea Submit on Blackboard for quick feedback Nov 29 @ 11:59pm
2. Draft Submit on Blackboard and send copy to reviewer Dec 06 @ 1:10pm
3. Final draft Submit on Blackboard Dec 13 @ 11:59pm

You will be graded on your idea and draft brief (5% each) and your final brief (90%)

Prompt

We're going to think about two big challenges: global climate change and pandemics (Covid-19, or more generally), and their intersection with the sustainable development goals.

Write a policy brief about one specific policy issue in the domain of one sustainable development goal that is exacerbated by one of the two big challenges above. For example, "food insecurity in India" is too broad. But "higher food prices as a result of supply chain shocks from super typhoon Gomi in the Philippines" is more answerable.

Choose one low- or middle-income country for your focus¹. Suppose that you are consulting to that country's national government of a nation of your choice. For this brief, describe the problem and explain why it is important. Provide information about potential solutions that the national government could reasonably enact, and make at least two policy recommendations.

Audience National government officials, who know a lot about their country's context and challenges, but who are very averse to additional spending, and it may be hard to convince that your solutions will meet the needs of their constituents.

What is a policy brief?

A policy brief is a short document that communicates information about a particular challenge and helps policymakers decide what to do.

UNC's Writing Center has a nice summary.

Imagine that you're an elected official serving on a committee that sets the standards cars must meet to pass a state inspection. You know that this is a complex issue, and you'd like to learn more about existing policies, the effects of emissions on the environment and on public health, the economic consequences of different possible approaches, and more--you want to make an informed decision. But you don't have time to research all of these issues! You need a policy brief.

A policy brief presents a concise summary of information that can help readers understand, and likely make decisions about, government policies. Policy briefs may give objective summaries of relevant research, suggest possible policy options, or go even further and argue for particular courses of action.

UNC Writing Center, "Policy Briefs"

How do I know if I've picked a good topic?

1. Have you identified a policy challenge that affects a developing country?
2. Can you link that challenge to an SGD?
3. Is your challenge exacerbated by climate change or Covid-19/pandemics?

Some examples:

• Addressing learning losses in Ghana in response to Covid-19 (SDG4: Quality education)
• Insuring Indian farmers against crop losses in the face of climate change (SDG2: No hunger)
• Increasing bednet usage in Malawi (SDG3: Good Health and Well-Being) (with cited discussion in brief of impacts of climate change on incidence of malaria)
• Intimate partner violence in Bangladesh during Covid-19 closures (SDG5: Gender Equality)

Policy brief: What am I looking for?

I've posted examples of successful policy briefs from previous classes on Blackboard

There isn't "correct" policy brief, because the needs of each organization differ. Many sample briefs include pictures and stylistic elements (smiling children, borders, etc.) to create a polished look. Graphic design skills are not necessary; however, your briefs should look professional—like something you could actually send to a policymaker. I do recommend paying attention to your formatting and using text boxes, simple charts, and/or tables as appropriate to illustrate your points. These can help you clearly convey your ideas within the word limit and make a nice-looking document.

You will be graded based on four key elements:

1. Motivation: Your make a convincing case using outside sources that your policy issue is important and the solutions you provide are likely to make the situation better.
2. Supporting evidence: You bring in appropriate ideas and references from class readings and/or outside literature. This evidence is properly cited
3. Argumentation: You take a clear side, and the points you make are justified.
4. Appearance and style: Writing is clear, grammatically correct, and free of typos. Writing style is accessible to a policy audience (minimal jargon, concise sentences). Brief looks professional.

Key Elements

Divide your brief into clear, labelled sections:

1. Executive summary: Approximately 1 paragraph. It should summarize your entire brief and make clear the SDG and link to climate change and/or Covid-19
2. Statement of problem/background: Motivate the policy challenge, support claims with outside sources
3. Pre-existing policies/evidence: Summarize what policies are being considered, what we know about them.
4. Policy options: Include 2–3 policy options, weigh advantages and disadvantages. Link to existing evidence of what works when possible.
5. Policy recommendation: Make a clear recommendation and justify.
6. References: Include any citations you have. Throughout your brief, you must cite at least 3 papers from peer-reviewed, academic journal articles. However, you'll likely have far more citations (at least 6 total). Use in-text citations when relying on other sources to support your statements, especially in statement of problem/background and pre-existing policies/evidence. MLA/APA/Chicago formats are all acceptable, and your reference section does not count toward word limit.

If you're not sure whether your paper is a peer-reviewed, academic journal article, check out this guide. Resources for finding journal articles includes Google Scholar (which will also include unpublished articles, so be careful!) and EconLit (accessible through the library databases).

Your policy brief text should be 1,000–1,500 words (excluding references, including executive summary). Submit as a word doc or PDF.

Class slides

REVIEW THE GRADING RUBRIC!

Deliverables

Your assignment will be submitted in three stages. You will be graded on your proposal idea (5%, for completion), draft brief (5%, for completion), and your final brief (90%)

Policy brief idea

Submit on Blackboard by Monday, November 29 @ 11:59pm

Prepare a 1–2 paragraph "pitch" of your idea. This is fairly informal, but it should include the following:

• Location of study: Specific country, region within country, etc
• Description of the specific challenge and how it is exacerbated by climate change or COVID-19
• Description of link to a specific SDG
• Name of your partner (if applicable)

Policy brief draft

Submit on Blackboard by December 06 (Monday) @ 1:10pm, and we will peer review in class

What counts as "complete enough" for a rough draft:

• Content in all six "key elements" of policy brief

• At least 1 page single spaced

• At least 2 peer-reviewed academic journal articles included (you need 3 for final)

   

RCT proposal final draft

Submit on Blackboard by December 13 (Monday) @ 11:59pm

Review rubric before submission!

Policy Brief Examples

See Blackboard for student examples

Improving Opportunities for Youth with Subsidized Dual Apprenticeships in Côte d'Ivoire: Good example of policy brief, with note that this is one that is focused on one research study, so it's a bit different

The Effects of COVID-19 on Business and Employment in Ghana: Obviously a good Covid-19 connection. This brief is reporting research results, so a bit different. But, it highlights a way of linking Covid-19 to a development outcome.

Improving Learning Outcomes: Evidence from Rigorous Evidence: This one does a better job summarizing a range of existing literature, which is a close fit to this assignment.

UNC: A not-so-good policy brief vs a better policy brief— annotated!

Policy Brief Rubric

Download policy brief rubric!