85489 - Political Economy of Mediterranean Countries

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing an understanding of the economic systems of the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries, through the analysis of their process of development and of their recent performance. The student should be able, at the end of the course, to use the acquired knowledge to the study of the economies of the different countries, to understand the peculiar issue that characterize the area, to evaluate policies implemented during the last decades to copy with the development process and to suggest policy recommendation.

Course contents

The course will focus on the following topics:

• A long-term view on macroeconomic development: growth and volatility
• Food, agriculture and water in the Mediterranean countries
• Poverty and inequality
• Demographic transition, labour markets and migration in Mediterranean countries
• Governance and institutions as determinants of economic growth
• Structural adjustment in the Middle East: success or failure?
• Economic growth in the Middle East: what is the role of natural resources?
• Globalization, foreign aid and economic growth in the Mediterranean region

A clear distinction will be made between economic theories (i.e. the unobserved determinants of economic phenomena) and empirical facts (i.e. observed data from economic history) that allow theoretical hypothesis to be tested in macroeconomic analysis.

Readings/Bibliography

The students who do not attend the course should refer to the following textbook: Economic Development in the Middle East and North Africa, by Mohamed Sami Ben Ali, ISBN: 978-1-349-55918-3 (Print) 978-1-137-48066-8 (Online), 2016, Palgrave Macmillan US.

Copies of the textbook will be available at the library of the University of Bologna.

The students who attend the course will have access to a list of research articles available online. This literature list will be presented by the lecturer at the beginning of the course.

Teaching methods

The course will consist of 21 hours of lectures. During the remaining time in class, the students will carry out three written assignments on relevant topics of applied macroeconomics.

The purpose of the exercises is to provide ‘hands-on’ guidance to the students on how to structure and write short economic commentaries on matters relevant for the course. The students will carry out data gathering from online sources. They will elaborate the data in a simple and intuitive way. Finally, they will prepare short notes in class that allow them to experience what it means to provide basic economic anaysis to relevant stakeholders.

While working either individually or in small groups, the students will be guided by the lecturer, who will help them to complete each assignment in a satisfactory manne.

Since no specific preparation will be required, the deliveries of the assignments will not be graded.

Assessment methods

Both the students who choose to attend, and those who do not attend the course will be required to take a written examination.

The exam for the students who participate to the course will be based on Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9 of the textbook ‘Economic Development in the Middle East and North Africa’.

The exam for the students who attend the lectures will be based on the reading list provided by the lecturer material discussed in class. As discussed earlier, the assignment carried out in class under the guidance of the lecturer will not contribute towards the final grade.

Every exam will be based on five questions. The final grade will consist of the simple average (i.e., the mean) of the grades obtained from each answer.

The grading criteria are the following:

• consistency (i.e., whether an answer does reply to the specific question at hand)
• relevance (i.e., how deeply an answer addresses the core point of a question)
• completeness (i.e., whether all the important points are discussed by an answer)
• logic (i.e., whether an answer outlines the reasoning that stands behind it, or why a certain answer is provided)

For any questions or additional information, the students should are welcome to get in touch with the lecturer by email.

Teaching tools

The lecturer will prepare a detailed reading list with copies of the articles discussed in class. The students who attend the course will also receive slides for each lecture topic.

The materials will be provided by the lecturer through a Slack channel set up by the lecture at the beginning of the course.

Office hours

See the website of Paolo Zagaglia