Peer Review

This assignment exposes students to data on economic growth and development as commonly measured by per capita GDP and the Human Development Index (HDI) for 100 countries of the world. There is a big debate about how good an indicator HDI is compared to GDP per capita as a measure of development.

This is an assignment that gives students experience with using statistics to analyze real-world country data , reading academic papers, developing a scientific argument, writing up and presenting their results, comparing indicators of economic growth and development, and making contributions to knowledge.

Assignment

The assignment is suitable for in-class work, a semester-long project, or a homework assignment divided into several sections for individuals or teams

• Software for regression analysis
• Word processor
• Knowledge of Excel
• Used Chrome, Edge

• Students develop a sense of the level of development in countries and understand the role of education, health and income in economic development.
• Students think critically about how the income and education and health variables are calculated.
• Students identify the flaws in the estimation method used by the UNDP in calculating the HDI, specially the departure from economic theory.
• Students become aware of the fact that small changes in the parameter values can change ranking of the countries significantly.
• Student will analyze their findings effectively presenting the data in an appropriate manner (tables, and graphs).  

Advanced undergraduate economics students or graduate students early in their degree path.

Students need to have taken Principles of Macroeconomics and Microeconomics, problem-solving and critical thinking skills, analytical ability, and the ability to create, read, and interpret graphs. Helpful to be comfortable with computers, spreadsheet software, statistical tools.