Development Economics

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This new Development Economics course is designed to give you an understanding of key issues in economic development and provide you with rigorous economic theory and statistical tools to be able to analyse policies and assess their impact on economic and human development.

You will be taught by faculty from City's Economics Department, all of whom are research active. The course is led by Dr Alice Mesnard, a senior economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies for six years before joining City. Dr Mesnard is supported by academic staff with expertise in both theoretical and applied development economics.

You will benefit from City'sLondon location, and our proximity to the centres of decision-making in development economics. (We are six tube stops away from the Department for International Development, for example.)

Teaching
This course is designed to be flexible in the range of teaching methods used. You will be taught through a mixture of lectures, seminars, student presentations, analysis of case studies and interactive computer-based exercises, particularly in relation to the quantitative elements of the course.

In your third term we organise for experts from outside City to come in and present current research on both methodological and applied topics.

Three hours teaching time is allocated for each session of each module. However, this will not necessarily involve three hours of lecturing, as time is also set aside for workshops and tutorials. You can use the rest of the day to use the library and computing facilities, and for doing other course-related work.

Assessment
You will be assessed through a combination of assigned coursework - the nature of which will vary according to the module - and one final examination. Overall assessment is based on performance in taught modules and a dissertation. Your research methods training and dissertation marks account for one third of your overall assessment.

Career Prospects
Upon completion of this course you will have the skills to work in:

* consulting firms specialising in development
* governmental bodies such as the Department for International Development (DFID)
* major international financial and development institutions such as World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations or the Overseas Development Institute, which regularly recruits MSc graduates for overseas postings.

The aim of this course is to develop your critical and analytical abilities in economics, with particular reference to development. By the time you graduate, you should be able to:

* demonstrate that modern economic theory is relevant to development economics
* critically interpret current research in development economics and evaluate its relevance to development practice and policy analysis
* understand the enduring determinants of poverty
* analyse the issues of fertility, education, health, work, migration and microfinance and their contribution to economic development
* develop microeconomic models to explain how people make such decisions and how policy is likely to affect their choices
* assess policies designed towards helping the poor by taking into account how people react to policy interventions, and statistically assess the success of such policies
* undertake empirical investigations in development economics, using appropriate quantitative methods.

Course Structure
You take seven taught modules (five core modules and two electives) and a dissertation.

Core modules * Development economics
* Microeconomics
* Macroeconomics
* Econometrics
* The economics of microfinance

Elective modules
Choose two from the following including at most one module taught in the Department of International Politics:

* Welfare economics
* Financial regulation
* International money and finance
* Economics of competition
* Economics of regulation
* Economics of healthcare
* Game theory

Modules taught in the Department of International Politics:

* Development and international politics
* Global political economy
* Political economy of global finance
* The politics of forced displacement and resettlement
* Global politics of health and disease

You should have a first or upper second class (2:1) honours degree in Economics or a first or upper second class (2:1) degree in a quantitative discipline with either some economics component or supplemented by economics-related work experience.Knowledge of basic statistics, calculus and probability theory is required.An equivalent qualification from an overseas university will be considered. * IELTS: an overall score of 6.5 with a minimum of 6.0 for each subtest * TOEFL (internet-based): 100 - 105 English Language Requirements IELTS band: 6.5 TOEFL iBT® test: 100 IMPORTANT NOTE: Since April 2014 the ETS tests (including TOEFL and TOEIC) are no longer accepted for Tier 4 visa applications to the United Kingdom. The university might still accept these tests to admit you to the university, but if you require a Tier 4 visa to enter the UK and begin your degree programme, these tests will not be sufficient to obtain your Visa. The IELTS test is most widely accepted by universities and is also accepted for Tier 4 visas to the UK- learn more.