Prof.

Freitas, University of
Toronto

ECO324: Economic Development, Winter

2024 Assignment 1: Instructions and
Logistics

Logistics

Assessment Weight Due Date Time Location

Assignment 1 10% 02-Feb 5:00PM Quercus (Assignments tab)

• The wide submission window accommodates all issues, meaning there will be no extensions for any reason.
Working on it well before the deadline will ensure that unexpected issues does not affect you. After the deadline,
Quercus will automatically impose a 10% (of maximum assignment points) per 24-hours late.

• Your written submission file must be in text only, typed directly into Quercus.
• The video must be less than 500 mb and a file type accepted by Quercus. More details are in the format section.
• Both video and script need to be submitted at the same time, not separately. We grade your last submission, which
must have both.

• You have an optional feedback opportunity for this assignment, details below.

Purpose

The purpose of this assignment is...

• To examine the definition of poverty and apply the concept of poverty measures to your community. Every
development economist has to grapple with how we define and measure poverty to notice the strengths and
weaknesses of the current measures.

• To develop your presentation skills and ability to communicate economic reasoning.

Target audience

You are creating a pitch for the board of a community development agency. The agency works on improving lives for
people living in your chosen community. Board members have never taken an Economics class before so are unfamiliar
with our jargon, but they are smart and can follow clearly explained economic reasoning. They want to measure the
impact of their work on poverty in their community and have approached you for help.

Instructions
• Choose a community you belong you. You get to define the borders of your community. It can be as broad (e.g.
Canada- wide) or as narrow (students living in your dorm) and you want. The only criteria are (1) you must belong
to the community and (2) you need to be comfortable sharing that you belong to this community.

• Define what it means to be poor in that community.

• Create a poverty measure that economists can use to capture and measure your definition of poverty in your
community. The measure should allow for tracking changes over time and potentially across contexts. More details
below.

• Create a 3-minute video explaining your definition and measure as if you were pitching it to a development agency.
Write up an accompanying script that is exactly what you say in the video.

Department of Economics, Winter 1 of 8 Assignment

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 Prof. Freitas, University of
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• Submit both parts on Quercus before the deadline. For help with submitting the assignment on
Quercus see: https://utm.library.utoronto.ca/students/canvas/submitting-assignments

Department of Economics, Winter 2 of 8 Assignment

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 Prof. Freitas, University of
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Format

Script (Content) using the extreme poverty line of $2.15 to illustrate what I mean (see Roser (2021)1)

• Start by introducing yourself, at minimum, with your name.

• Briefly describe your chosen community so we know what your context is. It should be either explicitly stated or
reasonably clear why you are a member of that community (e.g. the world population, which would make the agency
I’m pitching to an international development agency like the UN or the World Bank).
• Describe your chosen definition of poverty in your community and why you chose it (e.g. extreme poverty
characterized by not enough income to afford the basic necessities of life including not just food and shelter, but also
healthcare, sanitation, education, etc. )
• Describe your chosen measure of poverty (e.g. per-person income of less than $2.15 a day based on 2017 PPP.
Income includes non-monetary income and home production and based on household data).
• Explain why it is a good way to measure your definition of poverty. Include and at least one pro and one con of
your measure. (e.g.
– income for the reasons discussed in class. $2.15 a day because it roughly corresponds to poverty line in
poorest countries, so would capture poverty in all countries and because poorest countries it would capture
extreme poverty.
– Pro: easy to get data to compare across time and country, so able to measure progress.
– Con: the absolute measure only captures extreme poverty and ignores poverty in rest of the world that doesn’t
meet criterion for extreme poverty)
• End with a quick pitch for why you think this is a good measure of poverty for the agency to use.
Notes:
• The script should be an exact transcript of what you say in the video plus citations, if any.
• Your file must be a text submission only, as it is literally the script of your video presentation. There should be
no embedded images or tables.
• References or evidence are not required. This should be based on your life experiences. You just need to have your
reasonable, well argued explanation. However, if you use someone else’s work or ideas, please cite it. Here is a
resource to help you: https://guides.libraries.uc.edu/integrity/cite.
• Only certain types of generative AI are allowed (see Academic Integrity below).

Video

• Your video should be a maximum of 3 minutes long (shorter is ok). The grader will stop your video at the 3-minute
mark if it is over and not grade anything after that. This applies to the accompanying script as well. Any words
after the video stops will not be graded. This determines the length of the script.
• You must speak without any aids. This means no slides, no background visuals, no script in hand, etc. It should just
be you against as plain a background as possible (e.g. wall in the room you’re recording) speaking directly to your
audience.
– I chose this to keep the priority on the content and build presentation skills of the type you need in a
development agency context–talking to stakeholders one-on-one.
– A side effect is to minimize the time spent on this assignment. Good slides time to create.
• Video file types accepted by Quercus are here: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Student-Guide/What-types-of-media-
files-can-I-upload-in-Canvas-as-a-student/ta-p/528#:∼:text=Canvas%20can%20upload%20specific%20image,files%20up%20to%2
• You have the option of directly recording a video on Quercus, details here:
https://utm.library.utoronto.ca/students/canvas/submi assignments/video-submission
• You can re-record and resubmit as many times as you want before the deadline.
1
Max Roser (2021) - “Extreme poverty: How far have we come, and how far do we still have to go?” Published online at OurWorldInData.org.

Department of Economics, Winter 3 of 8 Assignment

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 Prof. Freitas, University of
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Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty-in-brief

Department of Economics, Winter 4 of 8 Assignment

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 Prof. Freitas, University of
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How we will grade your work

Script/Content

Below are some aspects we are looking for when grading your work. We may adjust this based on actual submissions as
this is the first time we’re trying this assignment. In general, a higher quality, more ECO324 level economic explanations
(e.g. related to issues raised in the readings) get more points.

Criterion Excellent
Community The borders of the community are clearly defined and there is no
ambiguity. Student explains why they are a member of that community or
is it clear (e.g. it is clear you are a member of the world population without
you having to explain why you belong).
Poverty definition Poverty definition is related to ECO324 concepts as discussed in class and
the readings. e.g. it is clear why a person classified as poor by your
definition will not be able to fully participate in the community you have
defined.
Poverty definition is specific to the chosen community and not a generic
one. Details clear e.g. is an absolute or relative measure? If poverty is
multidimensional, are the various dimensions substitutes for each other or
complements?
Poverty measure The measure is precise clearly defined. The dimensions you need to be clear
about are the ones (with illustrative examples) in Table 2.1 from Atkinson
(2016)2 copied below for convenience.
Chosen measure has characteristics of a good poverty measure–simple, easy
to measure, comparable across time and context and sensitive to changes in
poverty3.
Discussion Link between poverty measure and definition of poverty is clear. Reasoning
relies on economics.
Chosen pro(s) and con(s) are important ones and not incidental and well
explained. The pros are related to why the measure was chosen despite the
cons. Cons make shortcomings an economist would care about (e.g.
measurement issues) clear.
Communication Student’s reasoning is clearly explained with minimal use of jargon.
Language is appropriate for audience.
Format Student follows instructions. Script matches video exactly and doesn’t have
any visuals or tables. Included citations are well formatted (no particular
one required, pick your favorite).

• Table 2.1 from Atkinson, A. (2016). Monitoring Global Poverty. Report of the Commission on Global Poverty.
World Bank Group. Washington, DC. USA. Available online from https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/ with the
direct link: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/00f8ca01-a0ab-5c4d-a461-e5ca60af5261/
content
2
Atkinson, A. (2016). Monitoring Global Poverty. Report of the Commission on Global Poverty. World Bank Group. Washington, DC. USA.
3
No measure is perfect which is why you have to discuss pros and cons as well.

Department of Economics, Winter 5 of 8 Assignment

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Video

• Did the student follow all instructions (e.g. no slides, no aids, etc.)? This is just graded on a Yes/No basis.
• Did the student stick to the 3-min limit? This is just graded on a Yes/No basis and we may forgive a few seconds
over the limit in case you need to finish up a sentence.

• Is the student clearly audible without any background noise?

• Does the student speak clearly, confidently and in a way that engages the audience?

Advice
• Make sure to critically read through (links on Quercus)
– Deaton, A. Measuring Poverty Links to an external site.in Banerjee, Abhijit Vinayak, Roland Benabou, and
Dilip Mookherjee, eds. Understanding poverty. Oxford University Press, 2006.
– Introduction and Ch 1 from Sen, Amartya. Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
• A common reaction after getting your grades back is to feel that the grader/audience did not really understand what
you were saying. That happens to everyone who writes or presents. For example, I’m sure these instructions are not
as clear as I think they are! Our arguments are clear to us because we have thought deeply about it. Someone
without that context may not understand what you’re trying to say. Test your visual or explanation out on your
family and friends. Do they get what you’re trying to say? However, be careful about academic integrity (see below).

• Please be appropriate. This is trying to proxy a work task, and this is a university assignment. Keep your work
appropriate for that setting.

• Writing/presenting is just one part of this assignment, the primary focus is your economic reasoning. It is tempting
to focus on the writing/presentation aspects because it feels easier to fix or easier to identify as something that needs
work. Keep your primary focus on economics. We do not care what you wear or the details of your background or
pronunciation. Some useful resources when planning your script are available here: http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca.
I would recommend “How Not to Plagiarize” and other advice on documentation format and methods of integrating
sources. These pages are listed at http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/using-sources.

Department of Economics, Winter 6 of 8 Assignment

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Feedback Opportunity

In the workplace, you will have opportunities to get feedback on your work from your colleagues before submitting it to a
client. Unfortunately, with a large class and limited TA resources, this is hard for us to do. We will have an optional peer
feedback opportunity during the tutorial slot on 24-Jan. More details will be posted on Quercus.

Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity is central to an UofT education. We will do our best to maintain the integrity of the learning
experience. Sometimes you may feel like taking shortcuts because you are don’t understand the material, are stressed or
overworked, don’t have time, not doing well, etc. Please don’t do it. We report all suspected cases of academic dishonesty
to the Department of Economics and SAI. The consequences can be very severe. It is not worth it.

• This assignment is individual work. Anything not on the allowed list below, isn’t an authorized aid. Some
examples of actions that violate Academic Integrity are also listed. As technology is moving fast I reserve the right
to makes changes to this policy and will give you enough of notice when I do so. Unintentional mistakes or confusion
is not a defence. Ask if you’re unsure.

Allowed NOT allowed

Course instructor and TAs Tutors (paid or unpaid) or students who have taken the
course before.
Writing centers at the UofT Literally anyone not mentioned explicitly in the Allowed
category.

Your classmates currently taking ECO324. You can Collaborating (working together) with your classmates.
verbally, run your thoughts by them to get some feedback
and via the optional feedback opportunity built in.

Family and friends who DO NOT have an Economics Checking websites for answers, posting your work for others
background, with the sole purpose of seeing whether they to use, collaborating, soliciting/receiving answers, stating
understand what you’re trying to say false or misleading information related to assessments, etc

Grammarly and the grammar checker in MS Word. All other generative AI.

• Do your own work. We design course work to develop and assess skills useful in upper-level courses and the job
market. You lose a valuable opportunity to develop these skills and lower the value of the UofT brand when you
cheat.

• Properly acknowledge other people’s ideas. You’d want the same for your ideas.
• Report any suspected violations by other students to the professor immediately. Students who cheat hurt others
who work hard and honestly. Maintaining the Academic Integrity of the course is a shared responsibility; do your
part.

• Read the University of Toronto’s Code of Behavior on Academic Matters. This is especially important if
you’re new to the UofT. See: http://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/osai.

• Generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT, grammar checkers): I know that writing is difficult and we worry about things like
gram- mar, sentence construction, etc. Because this is not the focus of our assignment, I’m allowing you to use
Grammarly and the grammar checker in MS WORD. If you want to use any other grammar checker, please
clear it with me first. No other generative AI may be used in any way, despite how tempting it may be. I
understand it is a tool that makes our lives easy, however we are working on skills that make you valuable to an
employer. If what you do can be outsourced to AI, why should they hire you? Your experiences are unique to you.
AI generates material based on everything already out there. Using your experience makes you a better, more
creative economist who is able to bring something new to the workplace. If you used AI grammar checkers, please
include a few sentences at the end stating what website/software you used and how you used it.

• Just to be clear

Department of Economics, Winter 7 of 8 Assignment

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– the knowing use of generative artificial intelligence tools, including ChatGPT and other AI, (excluding the ones
specified above) for the completion of, or to support the completion of, this assignment will be considered an
academic offense in this course.
– Representing as one’s own an idea, or expression of an idea, that was AI-generated will be considered an
academic offense in this course.
– Students may not copy or paraphrase from any generative artificial intelligence applications, including
ChatGPT and other AI writing assistants, for the purpose of completing assignments in this course.
– Use of generative AI (excluding the ones specified above) to complete this assignment will be considered use of
an unauthorized aid, which is a form of cheating.

The University’s plagiarism detection tool policy

Normally, students will be required to submit their course essays to the University’s plagiarism detection tool for a review of
textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. In doing so, students will allow their essays to be included as source
documents in the tool’s reference database, where they will be used solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The
terms that apply to the University’s use of this tool are described on the Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation web
site (https://uoft.me/pdt-faq).

Department of Economics, Winter 8 of 8 Assignment

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