Case Study (Finance and Development in Emerging Asia)

This course has two main objectives. First, it aims to deepen student understanding about finance and development issues in emerging Asia. Second, it helps students prepare for a future profession, both public and private, in the related field.

Throughout the course, we will explore innovative approaches to enhancing the finance-development nexus and discuss how to address policy challenges. In the current global context, the scope of discussion will be connected occasionally with the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for finance and development to add real-world relevance to student learning.

Guest speakers will discuss selected issues based on different fields of professional expertise. As a practical training course with active learning approach, students will have the opportunity to do a policy planning exercise by preparing a policy proposal for a particular country in one of the following three fields of their choice.
◾Infrastructure development, either economic or social
◾Enterprise development, particularly micro, small & medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs)
◾Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), Socially Responsible Investment (SRI), and Impact Investing

We will learn a basic framework to understand development and finance-development nexus. In order to provide the background knowledge for a better understanding of issues, the course will revisit development achievements in Asia in the past 50 years. Learning from the past will help identify factors contributing to development as well as the remaining challenges for policy actions.

We will then have an overview of opportunities and challenges in various approaches in development finance. Policy options will be also discussed when relevant in a broader geopolitical context, such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the emergence of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)—a new multilateral lender in Asia—and the G20 initiatives.

One of the underlying questions is how to address challenges to enhance finance-development nexus through public policy with an effective incentive design and minimum market distortions. The course follows a hybrid approach of basic economics and geopolitics with a practical orientation.