Business as a Development Actor (702M9)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Spring teaching

During this module, you'll examine the effects of business activity on development. By the end of the module, you'll be able to critically assess the influence of business and markets' contribution to development through:

• poverty reduction
• environmental sustainability
• working towards more inclusive and secure societies.

You'll start by looking at political economy perspectives on business and development. You'll then look at core strategies for promoting development such as market systems, value chains and the nature and responsibility of business.

Topics covered include:

• private sector development
• inclusive business
• economic alternatives
• financial inclusion and microfinance
• taxation
• the digital economy.

The module finishes with a discussion of cases about industrial policy for development.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 44 hours of contact time and about 256 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.