The University of Manchester
MGDI60581
Development Macroeconomics 2024/2025
ASSIGNMENT #1
(20% of final mark)
The essay should be submitted via Blackboard before 14:00 (UK time) on
THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2024.
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Assignments should be word processed: 12pt font size, with 1.5 or double line spacing

WARNING:

• The University has a strict policy on plagiarism. Unacknowledged copying of
another person’s work will result in the automatic failure of the assignment and
may lead to disciplinary action being taken against the study fellow. Your
answer must be fully referenced where appropriate. For guidance on how to
make sure you avoid plagiarism and other forms of academic malpractice,
please consult your handbook.
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Assignment Weight: 20% of the final mark

PLEASE CAREFULLY READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE
STARTING THE ASSIGNMENT
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1000-word data exercise
This assignment is a data exercise where your first task will be to
download the relevant data to test some key predictions of a Solow type
growth model for sample of countries that you will select.
Your dataset should cover the period 1988-2016 and should consist of
60 countries in total, including at least 10 from the low-income ($1,135
or less) group and at least 15 from the high-income group ($13,846 or
more).1

1 World Bank country classification by income group can be found here:
https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-
groups
2
Using your compiled dataset and basic statistical analysis based on a
scatter plots (with a linear fit)2 , discuss whether there is evidence of
unconditional convergence.
.
Notes:
Note 1
For the scatter plots, although STATA is strongly recommended, you are
allowed to use other software packages if you wish to do so. The only
requirement is that in your scatter plots the country identifier should be visible.

Note 2
In addition to scatter plots, you may also use regression analysis if you are
comfortable with it. However, this must be additional to the scatterplots.
Note 3
The essay could be structured along the following lines:
Introduction
Main body (broken into sub-sections and sub-sub-sections with headings
and possibly numbered)
• A survey of the related theoretical and empirical literature
• Description of your data (please provide, description, definitions,
measures and sources of your data)
• Analysis and discussion of your results
Conclusion
References
Appendix
2 A STATA command to perform a scatter plot with a linear fit together with a demo dataset will be
posted on blackboard. You will also be offered Stata classes on to implement these different steps.
3
Note 4
What are the penalties for exceeding the word count?
• If you exceed the word count by between 10-50%, your final assignment
mark will be capped at 50% (PGT).
• Work exceeding the word count by more than 50% will be viewed as not
having met the requirements of the assessment. The work will not be marked
and a mark of zero will be recorded.