Political Economy of Emerging Markets

Course detail Description

Our course provides you with high-quality post-graduate teaching and training in the analysis of emerging economies. It offers a distinctive approach to the study of development by focusing on rising economic powers with a particular focus on national development strategies, economic and political institutions, and the political processes that influence economic reforms. We are based at King’s Department of International Development, which enables us to draw on social scientific expertise from across other departments in the faculties of Social Sciences & Public Policy and Arts & Humanities as well as King’s Global Institutes.

The course critically assesses economic development theory to ask whether emerging economies offer a new model or models of development. Our main focus is examining the strategies that emerging economies have adopted to promote development. This includes asking how sustainable or enduring these new strategies are and how emerging markets solve the difficult problems of promoting growth over the longer term. To answer this last question, we investigate how emerging economies deal with the development and diffusion of technology, manage trade and financial flows, balance the role of the state and the market, and tackle problems of institutional underdevelopment and weak systems of law and accountability.

Our course provides you with high-quality graduate research training for seeking employment in the large development sector in the UK, other OECD countries and in emerging economies, consultancy organisations, private sector companies with global operations and government offices. It is ideal if you are an international student seeking specialist training and/or government employment.

Teaching

For every 20-credit module, we will typically provide 20 hours of lectures and seminars, and we will expect you to undertake 180 hours of independent study. For your dissertation, we will usually provide five hours of dissertation workshops, and six one-to-one or group meetings with supervisors. You will undertake 589 hours of independent study.

Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.

Assessment

Performance on taught modules in the Department of International Development is normally assessed through essays and other written assignments such as oral group presentations and occasionally by examination, depending on the modules selected. We will assess your dissertation through a proposal
and a 12,000-word piece of writing.

Read more

Structure

Year 1

Courses are divided into modules. You will normally take modules totalling 180 credits.

If you are a full-time student you will take two required module worth 20 credits plus 80 credits of optional modules and a required dissertation worth 60 credits to make up 180 credits in total.

If you are a part-time student, you will take two required modules in your first year worth 40 credits plus 40 credits of optional modules. You will take your Dissertation module worth 60 credits in your second year and another 40 credits of optional modules to make up 180 credits in total.

King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. Therefore, modules offered may change. We suggest you keep an eye on this course page for updates.

You are required to take the following modules:

• Development Theory & Emerging Economies (20 credits)
• Political Economy of Market Reforms (20 credits)
• Dissertation & Research Methods (60 credits)

If you are a part-time student, you will take two required modules worth 40 credits in your first year plus 40 credits of optional modules. You will take your dissertation module worth 60 credits in your second year and another 40 credits of optional modules, in order to make 180 credits in total.

In addition, you are required to take modules totalling 80 credits from a range of optional modules, which may typically include:

• Comparative Public Policy Analysis in Emerging Economies (20 credits)
• Gender and Social Policy in Emerging Economies (20 credits)
• Gender and Social Policy in Latin America (20 credits)
• Industrial Development: Strategy and Competitiveness of East Asian Firms (20 credits)
• Education and Development (20 credits)
• Industrial Economics and International Development (20 credits)
• Multinational Enterprises, Global Value Chains, and Local Development (20 credits)
• Commodities, Credit and Crises: Topics in Macroeconomics of Development (20 credits)
• The Politics of Managing Public Finances in Emerging Economies (20 credits)
• Latin America Development in Historical Perspective (20 credits)
• Advanced Quantitative Methods for Causal Inference (20 credits)
• Advanced Qualitative Methods (20 credits)
• Political Economy of Market Reform (20 credits)
• Practical and Theoretical Evaluation of Sustainable Development (20 credits)
• Project Management in International Development (20 credits)
• Up to 40 credits from other departments across the university, subject to approvals