Development Policy

Session 1. Agenda for Sustainable Development: An Introduction o How to understand changes in global development goals (GDGs)? What is sustainable goals? What is 2030 agenda? In this session, we will learn a brief history, definition, and challenges of development as well as global & local development agendas.

• [Required Reading] United Nations General Assembly (2015), “Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development” (weblink). 
• [Required Video] Vietnam’s Commitments in Implementing Agenda 2030 and SDGs, available at https://www.youtube.com/

Session 2. Measuring Developmento How should we measure development? What kinds of development indicators and measures are available? Are they precisely captured the core of development phenomena? Is GDP a fair indicator?

• [Required Reading] Ravallion, Martin (1997), "Good and Bad Growth: The Human Development Reports." World Development 25(5): 631-638 (weblink).
• [Online Source] United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Index (HDI) (weblink).
• [Recommendation] Stiglitz, J, Amartya Sen and Jean-Paul Fitoussi (2009), Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress (recommend to skim p.11-18, 'Executive Summary' part).***English only

Session 3. Modernization and Washington Consensuso The literature on development has evolved from various perspective and we will particularly pay attention to these questions: What are the sources of economic growth? How have theories of growth evolved over time? How has market economic system been shaped in the world? How could Western countries modernize? What is Washington Consensus and its consequences?

• [Required Reading] Sachs, Jeffrey. 2006. "Chapter 2. The Spread of Economic Prosperity." The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. New York: Penguin (also, strongly recommend reading, Chapter 3).
• [Recommended] John Williamson. 1993. "Democracy and the "Washington Consensus"" World Development 21(8): 1329 – 1336 (weblink). ***English only

Session 4. State and Market: Varieties of Capitalismo Regardless of the term 'capitalism,' actual pattern of capitalist system vary country by country and region by region. What are various types of capitalist system? What is the relationship between the state and market in different capitalism?

• [Required Reading] Chang, Ha-Joon. 2005. Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective. London: Anthem Press, p.32-42.
• [Required Reading] Lee, Yong Wook. 2011. The Japanese Challenge to the American Neoliberal World Order: Identity, Meaning, and Foreign Policy. Stanford: Stanford University Press, p.1-2.
• [Required Reading] Hall, Peter A. and David Soskice. 2001. Varieties of Capitalism: Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.8-9.

Session 5. State-led Economic Growth and East Asian Miracleo There have been heated debates over the rise of non-Western prosperous economy in East Asia. How could Japan and four East Asian Tigers modernize? Was East Asian economy miraculous? Or did they have some favorable conditions?

• [Required Reading] Chang, Ha-Joon. 2006. "Chapter 4. How Important were the 'Initial Conditions' for Economic Development? East Asia vs. Sub-Saharan Africa." The East Asian Development Experience: The Miracle, the Crisis, and the Future. London: Zed Books.
• [Recommended] Wade, Robert. 1992. "East Asia's Economic Success: Conflicting Perspectives, Partial Insights, Shaky Evidence." World Development 44(2): 270-320. ***Vietnamese & English version available.
• [Recommended] Tejada, Carlos. 2017. "Money, Power, Family: Inside South Korea's Chaebol." New York Times, February 17 (if you're interested in Chaebol's inside), available at http://www.nytimes.com. ***English only.

Session 6. Beijing Consensus and Vietnamese Modelo Is the trajectory of Chinese development differ from that of East Asian predecesors and western advanced economies? What is the main idea of Chinese-Style Development? (Beijing Consensus). What could Vietnam learn (or not to learn)?

• [Required Reading] Perkins, Dwight. 2013. "Chapter 5. From Command to Market Economy in China and Vietnam." East Asian Development: Foundations and Strategies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• [Recommended] Ngok, Kinglun. 2009. "Chapter 2. Redefining Development in China," in Ka Ho Mok and Ray Forrest (eds.), Changing Governance and Public Policy in East Asia. London: Routledge. ***English only.

Session 7. The Big Debate – Policy versus Geography versus Institutionso How does globalization facilitate (or deter) national economic growth? What is the implication of regionalization of economy? Do geographic location of countries matter in development? How do foreign relations shape national economy?

• [Required Reading] Acemoglu, D. and J. Robinson. 2012. Why Nations Fail. Milken Institute Review. Available at http://assets1b.milkeninstitute.org/

Session 8. Rule of Law, Clientelism, and Crony Capitalism (Nguyen Quy Tam)o The principle of equal treatment, procedural fairness, judicial independence, and checks on state executive have been central to the discussion of prosperous economy. What is the correlation between the rule of law and economic development? How can the violation of equal treatment and procedural fairness through corruption have an adverse effect on economic activity?

• [Required Reading] TBA

Session 9. Urbanization and Its Consequenceso Urban areas are now basic pattern of human settlement. Why does urbanization matter? What have been consequences of urbanization on development?

• [Required Reading] Wyly, Elvin K., Norman J. Glickman and Michael L. Lahr. 2007. "A Top 10 List of Things to Know about American Cities." In E. A. Strom and J. H. Mollenkopf (eds.), The Urban Politics Reader. London: Routledge, p.9-17.o
• [Required Reading] Charles, Alice and Dilip Guna. 2019. "10 ways Cities are Tackling the Global Affordable Housing Crisis." World Economic Forum June 6, 2019, available at https://www.weforum.org

Session 10. Big City Problems in Asia and Vietnamo Many cities and metropolitan in Asia have suffered from urban problems. What are they? What are Vietnam’s big city problems? How to solve them?

• [Required Reading] Dapice, David, Jose A. Gomez-Ibanez, Nguyen Xuan Thanh. Ho Chi Minh City: The Challenge of Growth. Cambridge, MA: The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, available at http://www.un.org.vn/en/

Session 11. Rural Development in Asiao Many countries in Asia successfully escaped from poverty. The first step in most of the cases was rural development. How could South Korea, Taiwan, China, etc. develop rural area?

• [Required Reading] Korea Development Institute. 2011. "Chapter 11. Rural Development, Water Resource Management, and Silver Revolution." From Despair to Hope: Economic Policymaking in Korea, 1945-1979. Seoul: Korea Development Institute.
• [Required Reading] Prosterman, Roy. 2017. "How Land Reform Shaped Asia's Tiger Economies," available https://landportal.org.

Session 12. Rural Development in the Communist: Lesson for Vietnamo What are challenges and opportunities for Vietnamese rural area?

• [Required Reading] OECD. 2017. "Chapter 2. Southeast Asia: Prospects and Challenges." In OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2017-2026, p.88-89. http://www.fao.org
• [Required Reading] Donaldson, John A. Forthcoming. "Rural Poverty in China: A Tale of Stunning Success and Mounting Concern." (Earlier version of this particle is available upon request only in English (J. A. Donaldson (2007), "the State, the Market, Economic Growth and Poverty in China", Politics and Policy 35(4): 898-929)).

Session 13. Education and Developmento It has been known that the East Asian miracle is largely attributed, among other things, to the region is sustained levels of investment in human capital over a long period. How has East Asia benefited from rather a high level of human resource development?

• [Required Reading] George, Elizabeth St. 2011. “Higher Education Reform in Vietnam: Boundaries of Autonomy,” in Jonathan D. London (ed.), Education in Vietnam. Singapore: ISEAS, p.212-236.
• [Required Reading] Dickinson, Kevin. 2019. “How does Finland’s Top-Ranking Education System Work?” World Economic Forum, February 16, available at https://www.weforum.org
• [Required Video] Michael Moore’s documentary film, Where to Invade Next (video clip on Finland, 9:27). https://www.youtube.com
• [Recommended Video] Hannamiina Tanninen, “What the Finnish Education Systems Could Learn from Asia.” https://www.youtube.com (This is oppose to Michael Moore’s video, ***English only).

Session 14. Innovation, Science and Technologyo Investment in science and technology has affected the economy through direct job creation, contribution to GDP growth, creation of new services and industries, workforce transformation and business innovation. What is the causal link between science and technology and economic growth? How do science and technology eventually affect sustainable development?

• [Required Reading] UN System Task Team on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda. 2013. “Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development,” available at http://www.un.org/
• [Required Reading] Kim, Hyejin and Erik Mobrand. 2019. “Stealth Marketization: How International School Policy is Quietly Challenging Education Systems in Asia.” Globalization, Societies and Education, available at https://doi.org (Just read section on Vietnam, p.9-10).
• [Required Video] Japan’s Science City, Tsukuba, available at https://www.youtube.com

Session 15. Public Health and Social Careo What has been done to improve public health and sanitation and what can be done for further to meet the MDGs and SDGs which contain several targets for health condition in developing countries?

• [Required Reading] Hoang Van Minh. 2018. "Public Health in Transitional Vietnam: Achievements and Challenges." Journal of Public Health Management and Practices 24, S1-S2, available at https://journals.lww.com.
• [Required Reading] Kamineni, Shobana. 2019. “Why the 21st Century’s Biggest Health Challenge is Our Shared Responsibility.” World Economic Forum, available at https://www.weforum.org
• Relevant Cases: Transition from injuries, HIV, pneumonia to western life-style disease (cancer, stroke, heart disease, etc.) | Pandemics (outbreak of measles, African swine flu | Public sanitation | Infrastructure (hospitals, medical insurance, etc.) | Social insurance | Employment assistance

Session 16. Environment and Climate Changeo How to balance economic growth and environment? What are typical concerns on environmental damage? What are potential threats of the climate change?

• [Required Reading] Brennan, Madeline. 2018. "Mitigating the Effects of Climate Change in Vietnam." The Diplomat, January 20, 2018, https://thediplomat.com
• [Required Reading] Prachatai, MPE. 2015. "Mekong Governments, Civil Society Reach Agreement on Environmental Impact Assessment Agenda." Mekong Eye. September 15, available at https://www.mekongeye.com

* Wikipedia Project Deadline – August 5, 5.00 p.m.

* Final Paper Deadline – August 19, Monday 12.00 p.m.

Note on Press-Conference & Wikipedia Project

I. Press-Conference

• Choose a topic that is relevant to session topics and can be convert into Wikipedia paper.
• Press-Conference will be done from Session 9 to Session 16. It would be great if we have one group per one session, but Session 10, 12, 14, 16 can have maximum 2 groups.
• Within the scope of the sessional topics (urban problems, rural development, education, science & technology, public health & social care, and environmental problems), each group is required to choose a popular, important, and interesting topic that is worth gaining public attention (what kind of topics are on Wikipedia?)
• Presenting group is supposed to provide very concise and clear information about what your topic is, when it happened, how it has been developed, how it ha been handled by the government authority (or relevant actors) – Just fact-based. Then audience group (assuming reporters) will be allowed to ask questions.

II. Wikipedia Projecto

• After your Press-Conference, you're required to write up a Wikipedia Project.
• How to write? Please see the picture below. MS-Word file will be shared.
• Each topic is required to include at least three components: a. definition / meaning; b. history / development; c. impact / importance; d. debates, different positions.