The report should consist of four parts.

Part I (2-3 pages)

In part I you should present qualitative information that you consider important in understanding the development process of the country such as a brief economic and political history of the country as well as social or cultural characteristics that are important to understand the country’s economic development.

You  may find relevant  qualitative  information  about the  country  in books, newspapers (such as New York Times and the Wall Street Journal), and magazines (such as Times, Newsweek, and The Economist). Be aware that, among other things, proper referencing of your sources of information in the main text is required to receive high marks for part I. Also, a map of the country should be placed in Appendix A at the end of your paper.

Part II (8-10 pages)

In part II you should present and discuss quantitative information re- garding the main economic performance variables followed by the various determinants of development: demographics, capital accumulation, human capital formation, income inequality, government role and performance, ge- ographic factors, and international linkages.

Graphs and/or tables of as many variables as possible should be pre- sented in Appendix B at the end of your paper.  Label your graphs and tables using increasing numerals: B1, B2, B3, ...

Be aware that, among other things, proper referencing of your graphs and tables in the main text is required to receive high marks for part II.

Most importantly, when you discuss the graphs selected for part II make sure you include both a simple description of the graph as well as an eco- nomic explanation of what is shown in the graph.

Below you find a list of potential variables you may want to discuss in part II and III. Note:  boldfaced variables must be included in part II of your report to get full credit! As a rule of thumb, you should aim to produce between 40 and 45 graphs for part II.

Part II should cover the first eight subsections of the syllabus, and in the same order. The graphs and tables in this part should contain information on your chosen country only.

List of potential variables to  be discussed in Part II and III:

1. Economic Performance

(a) GDP per capita in constant U.S. Dollars

(b) GDP per capita in constant PPP-adjusted U.S. Dollars

(c) average growth rate of GDP Per Capita per decade (in constant U.S. Dollars or in constant PPP-adjusted U.S. Dollars) (i.e., 60s, 70, 80s, 90s, 00s, 10s)

(d) unemployment rate

2. Demographics

(a) population

(b) population growth rate

(c) crude death rate (part II only)

(d) crude birth rate (part II only) (e) total fertility rate

(f) age structure of population

(g) dependency ratio (ratio of young plus old to total population)

3. Capital Accumulation

(a) gross domestic savings rate

(b) capital stock as percent of GDP

(c) current account surplus (or deficit) as percent of GDP

(d) total external debt (percentage of GDP)

(e) urban population as percent of total population

(f) structure of production:  agriculture,  industry,  services

(percentage of GDP)

4. Human Capital Formation

(a) Education

i. gross primary education

ii. gross secondary education

iii. gross tertiary education

iv. adult literacy rate

(b) Health

i. life expectancy at birth

ii. infant mortality rate

iii. population per physician

5. Inequality

(a) Income Inequality

i. Gini coefficient

ii. poverty rate  (percentage of total population falling below the poverty line)

(b) Gender Inequality

i. gender gap in gross primary education

ii. gender gap in gross secondary education

iii. gender gap in gross tertiary education

iv. gender gap in adult literacy rate

v. gender gap in labor force participation rate

vi. gender gap in national parliament seats

6. Government Role and Performance

(a) Quantitative Performance Measures

i. inflation rate (i.e., consumer price index or GDP de- flator)

ii. central government expenditure (percentage of GDP)

iii. structure of central government expenditure: defense, infras- tructure, education, health, social safety net such as unem- ployment and welfare (percentage of central government ex- penditure)

iv. government deficit/surplus (percentage of GDP) (listed as Net lending (+) / net borrowing (-) (percent of GDP)  (GC.NLD.TOTL.GD.ZS))

v. central bank independence (yes/no)

(b) Qualitative Performance Measures

i. number of days to obtain business licence

ii. index of government corruption

iii. corruption perception index (from Transparency International data set)

iv. political instability (number of military coups, civil wars, ter- rorist attacks etc per year;

v. number of prisoners as percentage of total population (select years)

7. Geographic and Natural Resource Information

(a) Geographic and Climate Measures

i. landlocked (yes/no)

ii. tropics (yes/no)

iii. island (yes/no)

iv. percentage of arable land

v. data  on  climate  such  as  temperature,  rainfall  etc (long-term averages)

vi. frequency of natural catastrophes

(b) Natural Resource Measures

i. natural resources (as percentage of world resources)

ii. oil rents as % of GDP

iii. natural gas rents as % of GDP

8. International Linkages

(a) International Trade

i. merchandise exports (as percentage of GDP)

ii. merchandise imports (as percentage of GDP)

iii. structure of merchandise exports:  food commodities (SITC section 0, 1, 2, 4), fuels (SITC section 3), machinery (SITC section 7), other manufactures (SITC section 5, 6, 8, 9)

iv. structure of merchandise imports: food commodities (SITC section 0, 1, 2, 4), fuels (SITC section 3), machinery (SITC section 7), other manufactures (SITC section 5, 6, 8, 9)

(b) International Investment

i. Inbound FDI (percentage of GDP)

(c) Private International Transfers

i. Remittances (percentage of GDP)

(d) Official International Transfers

i. official development assistance:  receipts per capita (in dol- lars)

ii. official  development assistance:  total  receipts  (per- centage of GDP)

Part III (7-8 pages)

Part III should contain a detailed description and analysis of the coun- try’s economic development since 1960 (or a later year in case of some coun- tries) relative to countries that have similar per capita income, i. e .  the peer group  countries. For example, if your country is a low-income country, the peer group data would be average data for the entire group of low-income countries.  The analysis in part III allows you to determine whether your country’s development path was a relative  success or failure.  It will also provide you with some of the reasons for the relative development success or failure of your country.  Note that the data for the peer group of countries used in Part III will be given to you.

As in part II, you should present and discuss quantitative information regarding the main economic performance variables as well as the various determinants of development.  You should aim to produce between 25 and 30 graphs for part III.

Similar to part II, part III should cover the first eight subsections of the syllabus and in the same order.

Your graphs and/or tables for part III should be presented in Appendix C at the end of your paper.   The graphs and tables in part III should contain information on both your chosen country and the reference group of countries. Note that, among other things, proper referencing of your graphs and tables in the main text is required to receive high marks for part III.

As a rule of thumb, Label your graphs and tables using increasing nu- merals: C1, C2, C3, ...

Part IV (3-4 pages)

Part IV should contain two subsections.  In the first one, you should summarize your country’s successes (if any) and failures in terms of its de- velopment process based on your analysis in part III with regard to the eight sections of your analysis.  For each section pick one or two indicators and compare your country’s performance to that of your peer group. You should create a table for this summary since a table will allow you to present your findings in an organized and easily presentable way.  Place your table in Appendix D of your paper.

In the second subsection, you should make suggestions for economic poli- cies that are likely to improve the future development of the country. Make at least five recommendations and rank them in terms of their expected costs, from least to most expensive. You should present your recommenda- tion in a table format and place the table in Appendix D as well.

References

Make sure your report contains a reference section that lists all sources of information that you used, including the data sets that you received. The reference section should be placed between part IV and appendix A. References should be listed in alphabetical order. As a rule of thumb, your reference section should contain at least 8 references.

List  of additional  data  sources  that  may  be  helpful  for  your report:

1. World Development Report. Various Years. The World Bank, Wash- ington, DC (HC59.7.W659).

2. Government Finance Statistics Yearbook.   Various Years.   Interna-

tional Monetary Fund. Washington, DC, (HJ101.G68).

3. International Financial Statistics Yearbook.  Various Years.  Interna- tional Monetary Fund. Washington, DC, (HG3881.I626).

4. Direction of Trade Statistics. Yearbook. Various Years. International Monetary Fund. Washington, DC, (HF91.I65).

5. Statistical Yearbook.   Various Years.   U.N. Department of Interna- tional Economic and Social Affairs. New York (HA12.5.U63).

Additional Hints for Writing the Country Report:

In writing your country report you should follow the standard rules for scientific reports:

❼ Include a  Table  of Content  page and place it between the title page

and the first page of section I.

❼ Make sure that, except for the title page, all pages of your report are

numbered!

❼ Make sure that each section of your report stays roughly within the

page limits given above.

❼ The data that I will provide for you are taken from the ”World De-

velopment Indicators, The World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023” and should be cited as such in the reference section.

❼ Present the data by arranging them in graphs using Excel.   Occa-

sionally, a table format may be more suitable (such as the climate data), but the general form of the data presentation should be based on graphs/charts.

❼ Each table and graph should be numbered and contain both a header

and footnote that lists the source for the information shown in your graph or table.

For example:

Table B.35: Climate Indicators

Source: List the source for each climate indicator

❼ Make sure that all sources listed below your tables and graphs are also

included in your reference section at the end of your paper.