Master in Economic Development and Growth

"ATTENTION. The Call for Application is now available and can be downloaded together with the Application Forms from the section 'Application and Selection Procedure? of this web page".

The Erasmus Mundus Master Course in Economic Development and Growth-MEDEG is a full-time masters programme organized by a consortium including three top-class European Universities:
Universidad Carlos III Madrid - Spain (coordinating institution) University of Warwick - United Kingdom University of Lund - Sweden

MEDEG lasts two academic years, includes 120 ECTS (60 ECTS/year), and consists of 14 or 16 course modules (depending on the two different mobility schemes available) delivered through a combination of lectures, classes, tutorials and essay writing with individual supervisors. Another key component of the programme are a 8.000-word research dissertations to be written at the end of the first year and a 15.000-word dissertation to be written at the of the second year, on subjects chosen by students in consultation with supervisors.

Students are mandatorily required to study in two different universities of the consortium. In each university, they have to remain for one year and complete 60 ECTS. More specifically, the possible combinations are:
(A) Warwick (1st year) - Lund (2nd year)
(B) Carlos III Madrid (1st year) - Lund (2nd year)

MEDEG students can choose to spend their first year either at the University of Warwick (Option A) or at Universidad Carlos III Madrid (Option B). Warwick targets English-speaking students oriented towards research on economic development and growth at academic level. Carlos III Madrid targets Spanish-speaking students wanting either to pursue a professional career as development economists at governmental agencies and international organizations or to carry out research in development economics and economic history at academic level.

The first term is common at both universities and provides basic courses in Macro- and Micro-economics, International Economics, Statistics and Econometrics at intermediate level. In the second term, advanced courses are taught in order to allow students to specialize in the field of Economic Development according to the expertise offered by the two Universities. Students at Warwick develop advanced skills in econometric analysis, and focus mainly on advanced research topics in economic history, macro- and micro-topics in development and transition. Students at Carlos III focus on the analysis of different facets of economic development with a special emphasis on demography, inequality and poverty, and privilege Latin America as their main field of analysis. In both Universities the 3rd term of the first year is devoted to preparing an 8.000-word final dissertation. First year courses end up with a general workshop of one week in which MEDEG students from both options receive advanced training on specific topics by specialist from consortium universities and external experts. Students with the highest-quality first-year dissertations will also present the results of their research and discuss them with experts.

In the second year MEDEG students move to the Lund University to receive education and training in a series of advanced courses on different aspects of long-run economic development and growth. Thanks to the wide scope of expertise available at Lund and mobility schemes which allow instructors from both Warwick and Carlos III Madrid to move to Lund for one term, students can choose among a high number of courses on topics as varied and diverse as comparative patterns of economic change, technological change and innovation, inequality and living standards, economic demography, energy and sustainability, globalization and growth. In addition methodological courses are also offered on advanced quantitative and research methods. Some of these courses will be offered by experts from Warwick and Carlos III Madrid, thus enhancing the intra-consortium mobility of scholars (see below) and further expanding the range of specialized topics offered to students. At the end of the second year students are required to write a second 15.000-word dissertation with a high-level component of innovative research.

The Erasmus Mundus Master course in "Economic Development and Growth (MEDEG)" has four main objectives:
· to educate an innovative generation of analysts, researchers and professionals in the field of economic development and growth;
· to create a high-quality European master programme able to compete in the international market for higher education as a reference centre for research and professional training in the field of economic development and growth;
· to institutionalize the mobility and interaction of students and scholars across Europe and with Third-Countries;
· to contribute to European education's excellence and competitiveness at international level within the European Higher Education system.

MEDEG combines the complementary expertise existing at three leading European Universities into a common platform of graduate education and training. This objective is pursued within the guidelines of the Bologna process and aims to contribute to the development of the European Higher Education Area.

The MEDEG gives students with high academic and professional potential, coming both from the EU and Third-countries, the opportunity to specialize in an exciting area of economic studies and spend two years in an international academic environment oriented towards the promotion of research and teaching excellence.

One of MEDEG's key specificity is its original approach to the subject of Economic Development and Growth, which emphasizes the importance of long-run and institutional factors. MEDEG's ambition is in fact to train a new generation of professionals in the field of Economic Development and Growth endowed not only with solid economic analytical skill but also with a proper understanding of the constraints and opportunities provided by institutions and history.

As a matter of fact, an ever increasing number of studies in the field of economic development consider the quality of a country's institutions (the legal framework; the protection and enforcement of property rights and the rule of law; the efficiency of judiciaries and bureaucracies; cultural, religious, or ethnical identities; the articulation of political representation; access to education and health; constraints on government and rule-based norms of economic policy; social and institutional frictions in the working of factor markets) a powerful determinant of economic success or failure.

Economic development is largely based on the ability to build stable, efficient and effective institutions that enhance growth, promote economic and social opportunities and reduce poverty and deprivation. Institution-building however never takes place in a vacuum, but needs to be embedded into a historically-specific space of social and economic relationship on which the past casts a long shadow. 'Good' institutions cannot simply be transplanted but always need to be adapted, or even invented, if they are to work under country- and historical-specific circumstances. From different perspectives, recent contributions such as William Easterly's The Elusive Quest for Growth (MIT Press 2002), Amartya Sen's Development as Freedom (Oxford University Press, 1999) and Joseph Stiglitz's Globalization and Its Discontents (Norton and Co. 2002), provide excellent examples of this new approach to development.

There exists an expanding demand by private and public institutions in the field of Economic Development for researchers and professionals with a broad and dynamic knowledge rather than with a narrow-band specialization in specific issues. Boundaries between theory of economic development and growth, economic history, institutional economics and management of development programs are getting increasingly blurred. What the professional market demands is a graduate with a rich and comprehensive background.

Combining rigorous economic analysis with a proper understanding of institutional and historical complexities represents therefore an essential element of viable development strategies. The researchers and professionals educated in the MEDEG will be able satisfactorily to deal with the complexity and multiple dimensions of economic development and growth when they'll be responsible to carry out research, design policies or implement projects in less developed countries.

The course structure is detailed below. Syllabi of each course will be soon available on this section.
FIRST YEAR
1st Term Sept-Dec
Option A
University of Warwick
COMPULSORY COURSES
· Introductory Mathematics and Statistics
· Econometrics I: Time Series
Matrix algebra; Linear regression model and OLS; Inference; Heteroscedasticity, constancy and functional form, omitted variables; Time series analysis
· Macroeconomics and Growth
Economic growth; Introduction to DSGE models; Nominal rigidity; New Keynesian Phillips Curve; Monetary policy
· Microeconomics
Consumer and producer behavior; General equilibrium; Choice and equilibrium under uncertainty; Game theory; Economics of information
· International Economics
Trade models and policy; Trade and growth; Economic geography; Factor flows (migrations, capital, FDI

Option B
Univ. Carlos III de Madrid
CURSOS OBLIGATORIOS
· Introducción a la Estadística y Econometría
· Econometría I: Series Temporales
Regresiones lineales y OLS; Series temporales [Econometrica I: Linear regression models and OLS; Time series]
· Macroeconomía y Crecimiento
Crecimiento Económico en el Largo Plazo, Ciclos Económicos, Políticas Macroeconómicas [Macroeconomics: Economic Growth in the Long Run, Business Cycles and Macroeconomic Policies]
· Microeconomía
Economía de la Familia, Distribución de la Renta, Bienestar, Economía de la Información [Microeconomics: Household Behavior, Family Economics, Income Distribution, Welfare, Economics of information]
· Economía Internacional
Modelos y políticas de comercio; Comercio y crecimiento; Geografía económica; Flujos de factores (migraciones, capitales inversiones directas) [Trade models and policy; Trade and growth; Economic geography; Factor flows (migrations, capital, FDI)]

2nd Term
Sept-Dec
Option A
University of Warwick
COMPULSORY COURSES
· Micro Topics in Development and Transition
The working of democracy and dictatorship; Emergence of democratic institutions; Political instability and conflict; Bad institutions; Development and corruption
· Macro Topics in Development and Transition
Growth and development in transition and developing countries; Governance and institutions; International capital flows; Macro/financial crises
· Economic History
The Great Divergence; Institutions and European exceptionalism; Modelling the demographic transition and the industrial revolution; Economic growth since 1870; The geography of economic development; General purpose technologies
· Econometrics II
Money demand example; MacKinnon's critical values; Binary choice models; Method of moments estimator; Estimating the returns to schooling; Panel data models.

Option B
Univ. Carlos III de Madrid
CURSOS OBLIGATORIOS
· Desarrollo Económico
Instituciones, Demografía, Desigualdad, Pobreza, Educación [Economic Development: Institutions, Demography, Inequality, Poverty, Education]
· Globalización y Convergencia en el Largo Plazo
· Historia Económica y Desarrollo de América Latina en el Largo Plazo
Crecimiento Comparado, Divergencia y Convergencia, Volatilidad Macroeconómica, Distribución del Ingreso, Estrategia de Desarrollo [Economic History and Development of Latin America in the Long Run: Comparative Growth Performance, Divergence and Convergence, Macroeconomic Volatility, Income Distribution, Development Strategies]
· Econometría II
Datos de Panel y Microeconometría Aplicada al Análisis de la Pobreza [Econometrics II: Panel Data and Microeconometrics]
CURSOS OPTATIVOS
· Sistemas Financieros en Economías Emergentes
[Financial Systems in Emerging Economies]
· Desarrollo Agrícola e Instituciones Rurales en el Largo Plazo
[Agricultural Development and Rural Institutions in the Long Run]
· Mercados Laborales en Países en Desarrollo
[Labor Markets in Developing Countries]
· Instituciones, Desarrollo y Crecimiento
[Institutions, Development and Growth]

3rd Term
May-June
Option A
University of Warwick
Dissertation: 1st year paper
Option B
Univ. Carlos III de Madrid
· Trabajo de Investigación
[Dissertation: 1st Year Paper]

End of first year (July)
1st Year General Workshop at Carlos III de Madrid or Warwick
Economic History and Development Economics

SECOND YEAR
4th term
Sep-Oct
Lund University
COMPULSORY COURSE
· Comparative Analysis of Economic Change
OPTIONAL COURSES
· One of the following:
· Advanced Econometrics with Time Series Analysis
· Economic Growth over Time and Space
· China and the Asia Pacific
Nov-Dec
· One of the following integrated modules:
· Causes of Demographic Change
· Population and Living Standards
· Economics of Innovation
· Innovation, Energy and Sustainability

5th term
Jan-Mar
OPTIONAL COURSES
· Two of the following:
· Data Collection and Research Design
· Globalization and Long-Term Economic Growth
· Institutions, Growth and Inequality
· Consequences of Demographic Change
· Migrations and Integration

Apr-June
COMPULSORY
· Dissertation: 2nd Year Paper

End of 2nd Year
· Final General Workshop at Lund
· Reflections on Economic Development and Growth

Admission requirements are common for all students. The basic requirement for admission is to have obtained (or to be in the situation of obtaining before the start of the Master Programme) a recognized Bachelor's Degree (BS, BSc, SB, etc.) or a degree at the level of a Bachelor's Degree, e.g. its equivalent from a college, university, or technical school of high standing, or 180 ECTS credits in the European system, inEconomics and related disciplines (Business Administration, Finance, Economic History, etc.).