Assignments

Students must write one analytical paper examining the fourth week of readings (compare and contrast the arguments made by the authors, state which one you think is right and why). This paper should be 8-10 pages in length, and the questions below pertain to this paper. The students must write an additional (final) research paper due at the end of the semester.

Reading Questions for Development and the State

For your short analytical assignment due on Lecture #4, you are welcome to use one of the following questions as a basis for your paper.

1. Do you feel that Shleifer and Vishny's tripartite categorization of the state is useful analytically?  Is this an effective conceptual lense?
2. On what basis could you argue for either Stiglitz's or Shleifer/Vishny's conception of the state?  Are they arguing over different interpretations of the same empirical evidence or are they selecting difference bodies of evidence to support their arguments?  Who offers the better conceptual lense?
3. What is the difference between Amsden's notion of the "helping hand" and Stiglitz's?  In much of the development literature, distinctions are made between "market approaches" and "statist approaches."  How effectively does the "market vs. state" categorization map the differences between Shleifer/Vishny, Stiglitz, and Amdsen?  Similarly, how effectively does the "production school vs. exchange school" categorization map the differences?

The Readings Below Pertain To This Assignment:

Shleifer, Andrei, and Robert Vishny. In The Grabbing Hand: Government Pathologies and Their Cures. Harvard, 1999, pp. 1-13.

Boycko, Maxim, Andrei Shleifer, and Robert Vishny. Privatizing Russia. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995, Chap. 1, 2 (pp. 1-46).

Stiglitz, Joseph E. "Redefining the Role of the State." Paper presented on the Tenth Anniversary of MITI Research Center, (March 1998).
http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/extme/redefine.pdf

Stiglitz, Joseph E. "Wither Reform? Ten Years of Transition." Paper prepared for World Bank Annual Conference on Development Economics, Washington D.C. (April 1999).
http://www.worldbank.org/research/abcde/washington_11/pdfs/stiglitz.pdf