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Economies of South and Southeast Asia

Vak
2024-2025

Admission requirements

Students who have successfully completed State, Politics and Economy in Modern South and Southeast Asia (BA South and Southeast Asian Studies, Year 1) will be admitted automatically. If you do not meet this criterion but would still like to take the course, please send a mail both to lecturer Dr. Rizal Shidiq and to study adviser.

Description

This course is about a broad survey of today’s economies of South and Southeast Asia (SSEA) – one of the most economically vibrant regions in the world. Think of India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, or Vietnam, among others.
Special to this academic year of 2024-2025, we will focus on two largest economies in the region: Indonesia and India. We will go deep into these two important emerging economies – and discuss other countries in the SSEA region to provide some context.
In the first part of this course, we will examine the basic profiles of the economies. You will learn important skills to access main economic databases, retrieve and build simple dataset, and use it as evidence to support your arguments and analysis about the economy.
In the second part, we will analyze the long-run economic growth in the area. Why did Indonesia and India perform well better (or worse) than some other SSEA countries? What account for a long run growth (or lack thereof) in these economies in the last 40-50 years? In comparing growth performance among these economies, this part is structured around the standard determinants of long run economic growth: physical and human capital accumulation and technological change.
In the third part, we will explore the political economy and the social development effects of the long run economic growth. What is the role of the government in these economies? Did the economic growth bring significant social development effects? In particular, we will look at the issues of state intervention in the economy, corruption and rent-seeking, poverty and inequality, and health and education.
As a student, you are expected to work in group for reading report and class presentation; and individually for reflection reports and a final essay.

Course objectives

Upon completion of this course, you will acquire:

  • Empirical knowledge on the major features of the economic performance of South and Southeast Asian countries.

  • Analytical skills to apply simple economic concepts and data to understand what makes South and Southeast Asian economies differ in their economic performances, political economy, and social development.

  • Practical training for digital data finding and analysis and oral and written presentation.

Timetable

The timetables are available through My Timetable.

Mode of instruction

Lecture

Assessment method

Assessment and Weighing

The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average of the following:
Partial Assessment Weighing
Group reading report 10%
Individual reflection report 10%
Group class presentation 30%
Draft final essay 10%
Final essay (4000 words) 40%
The final essay is written in two stages: a first draft version which will be commented during mini seminar on the last week of the semester and a final version. The final mark is made up of the weighted average of the essay and the performance in class.
In order to pass the course, students need a passing mark (“voldoende”, i.e. “5.50” or higher) for the course as a whole AND the final essay.

Resit

Resit can be administered only if student completes the requirement of class presentation and final essay submission. The resit essay must be in a different topic.

Inspection and feedback

How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.

Reading list

Selected recent articles on the economies of South and Southeast Asia. The complete list of articles will be announced in the first lecture.

Registration

Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.

Registration Exchange

For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.

Contact

  • For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.

  • For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office Herta Mohr

Remarks

Students are expected to be familiar with Leiden University policies on plagiarism and academic integrity. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. If you submit any work with your name affixed to it, it is assumed to be your own work with all sources used properly indicated and documented in the text (with quotations and/or citations). The use ofAI chatbot (i.e., ChatGPT) for assignments and final essay is not permitted.