ECOS3002: Development Economics
Semester 2, 2023
Instructor: Russell Toth
Assignment Description: Development Economics Group Essay
Assignment Overview
You will work in groups of 51 students to complete a group essay project on a topic relevant to
development economics.2 Each student will be responsible for one section of the essay. 75% of your
mark will come from the mark for your own section, and 25% of the mark will come from the mark
for the rest of the essay (so the uniform average of your group members’ marks). Hence the essay is
mostly about your own performance, but there is still a significant incentive to work together to
produce the best possible joint product.
Students have the option to choose (1) which of the 2 essay formats they prefer (research proposal,
policy report for private sector partner, or policy report for public sector partner), (2) essay topic, and
(3) who they would like to partner with.
The project will proceed in 2 phases: (1) a 500-word synopsis, due in week 9, and (2) a final essay,
due in week 12 (Friday 27 October).
Group and Format Selection
You must participate in the group selection process or you will not be matched with a group and
automatically receive a score of 0.
Group selection
Group selection will occur in weeks 7-8. This will run through Canvas under the People tab. Students
will be able to self-select into groups of up to 5 (so if you have students you’d like to work with, but
only have yourself (1), 2, 3, or 4 people, please sign up for the same group number and additional
group member(s) will be added later).
After a fixed period of time that will be announced later (probably a few days), the instructor will use
random assignment to allocate all of the remaining students to groups, who have allocated
themselves to one of the groups under the People tab.
Format selection
A group is allowed to change their essay format and topic along the way; you must just communicate
this to me (see guidance on Communication later in this document).
It will always be up to the group to decide who will be responsible for each section of the essay.
1 Since enrolments are unlikely to divide evenly by 5, it is likely that there will be a couple groups with less than 5
members. In those cases the modified assessment will be as fair as possible to all involved.
2 The topics are not limited to ones I have/will cover in lecture. Any topic covered in the textbook would be fine. This
includes development policy issues that pertain to economically advanced economies (e.g., you might look at how
Australia should allocate its foreign aid budget, or its policy towards immigrants or refugees from developing countries,
or economic development in Indigenous Australian communities).
What’s the bottom line?
You need to write an essay in groups of 5 students, where you are responsible
for 1000 words. The project will have two steps: (1) a synopsis (due in week 9),
and (2) the full essay (due in week 12). You must participate actively in your
group, and may receive a late submission penalty if you fail to do so.
ECOS3002: Development Economics
Semester 2, 2023
Instructor: Russell Toth
Phase 1: Synopsis
Each group will need to submit a maximum 500-word synopsis (the word count excludes title, names
and student IDs, date, literature references, but you should still include these other elements). This
will be a summary of the format, topic, and focus of the essay. A template for the synopsis will be
provided on Canvas. The synopsis doesn’t carry a mark, however if your group fails to submit a
synopsis you will get a mark of 0 for the overall essay project, and late submissions of the synopsis
will be applied to the main essay.3 The main objectives of the synopsis are:
1. To encourage groups to make some decisions on the direction of their essay, leaving enough
time to write a high-quality final essay.
2. To give me an opportunity to give feedback on the projects at an early stage, on the suitability
of the topic, to flag literature/reports/organizations that seem relevant for the project, etc.
The synopsis will be submitted by Wednesday 4 October at 11:59 pm on Canvas.
I expect you to engage with your group on the synopsis by Wednesday 27 September. If you fail to
do so, and there is no evidence of your active participation, I may apply a late penalty to your mark
for the group essay, starting from Monday 25 Sept (5% per day).
Phase 2: Main essay
The final essay will be a maximum of 4,500 words (the word count excludes title, names and student
IDs, date, literature references, but you should still include these other elements), divided into 5
sections. A template for each essay format will be provided on Canvas. It is important that each
essay will have a main argument that guides the focus of the essay – it is not enough just to do an
expository essay about some topic. The nature of the main argument will differ by format type, but a
guiding thesis is key.
Essay formats
1. Research proposal. You will propose an original, policy-relevant empirical research project
in development economics. This is hypothetical – you will not carry out the research. It is
more like what you would submit if you were applying for a research grant or writing a thesis
proposal. You will strategically review the most relevant literature to highlight how your
proposed study would make a significant new contribution to knowledge – that it would do so
is your main argument. You will provide an economic framework (e.g., a model) to derive
hypotheses you would test empirically. You will outline the empirical design including data,
identification strategy (e.g., RCT design, RDD, DiD, etc). This option may be of particular
interest to students looking to pursue honours in economics.
2. Policy report. You will carry out an analysis of a pressing development policy issue of
appropriate scope for a 4,500-word essay. Your main argument will be your main policy
recommendation (e.g., “government/organization/decision-maker A should do X”), so you
can think of yourself as a consultant or adviser for a specific client. You will give an
overview of the issue and the policy context. You will use economic reasoning to outline
what economic theory/insights tell us about the issue. You will draw in empirical evidence
from available literature/reports, and/or your own descriptive analysis of available data. Note
that the analysis can pertain to public or private sector policy. So your hypothetical client
might be a developing country government, an international organization like the World
Bank or Asian Development Bank, or a non-government organization working in
3 E.g., if your synopsis is 3 days late, your main essay will receive a late penalty of 15%. Simple extensions are not
available for the synopsis, because it is part of a cumulative assessment.
ECOS3002: Development Economics
Semester 2, 2023
Instructor: Russell Toth
international development, but it could also be a private sector company or an industry
association. In the latter case the policy decision is one being made by the private sector
organization.4
The final essay is due by Friday 27 October at 5 pm on Canvas. Further instructions will be
provided later with regards to writing requirements (taking AI/LLM technologies into account).
I expect you to engage with your group on the synopsis by Monday 16 October. If you fail to do so,
and there is no evidence of your participation, I may apply a late penalty to your mark for the group
essay, starting from Monday 16 Oct (5% per day).
Group Document
The group document will have a date, title and abstract at the front, five main sections, and a
references section. Groups should follow the Word templates that will be included with this
assignment, which provides the format and suggestions for what should appear in each section.
Referencing Style
We will follow the Chicago style as implemented by the American Economic Association (i.e., in-
text (author date) references, and a list of references at the end of the essay). Further information is
provided on the Canvas site.
Communication
The default mode of communication about the assignment is Canvas Inbox (please do not use email).
Please note:
• For any important group decisions (e.g., essay format, change of topic) you must send me a
message with all group members on the message.
• When communicating on behalf of your group, please clearly indicate your group number in
the title of the message.
Grading Weight
20% of the overall course mark. A grading rubric will be provided on Canvas.
4 E.g., you might advise a commercial bank on how to get into lending to the poor, or you might advise an international
commodity trader on how to operate a more environmentally-sustainable, pro-poor supply chain, or you might advise an
agricultural supplier on an intervention that reduces market failures for farmers while still benefiting the supplier’s
bottom line.